[B-Greek] Left order prominence and construction -- Acts 5.18

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Thu Dec 28 12:50:46 EST 2006


Is it really?  Acts is the only book of the NT where this appears, and it is always in the dative.  In the three other usages (Acts 16.37, 18.28, 20.20) it is adverbial.  I'm inclined to think that it might be adverbial here as well.  If we add to that fact that when the apostles are reported to appear in the temple the following morning they are once again brought before the council.  At this time it is specified HGEN AUTOUS OU META BIAS, EFOBOUNTO GAR TON LAON MH LIQASQWSIN.  It would seem that they first (arrested them and put them in custody) PUBLICLY, but later were a bit more circumspect in their handling of the apostles.  
 
george
gfsomsel
_________



----- Original Message ----
From: Carl W. Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>
Cc: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 11:55:13 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Left order prominence and construction -- Acts 5.18


Am I missing something here? In the one passage (Acts 5:18) DHMOSIAi is an adjective in agreement with THRHSEI; in the other (Acts 16:37) it is adverbial. I've understood that THRHSEI DHMOSIAi is "the city jail"; I don't know if there's an equivalent THRHSEI IDIAi that would be like "house arrest." But "public jail" just isn't English. I suspect "city jail" is what I ver meant.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (ret)


On Thursday, December 28, 2006, at 11:30AM, "George F Somsel" <gfsomsel at yahoo.com> wrote:
>Iver,
>
>I'm glad you mentioned Acts 16.37 where Paul was publicly beaten since this concept is my concern here.  Are we to understand that what is envisioned is the placing of the apostles in full view of all?  Are we to think of a situation such as that in colonial New England where people had their arms and legs fastened into stocks and were subject to scrutiny by their neighbors?
> 
>george
>gfsomsel
>_________
>
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>
>To: George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 4:59:09 AM
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Left order prominence and construction -- Acts 5.18
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "George F Somsel" <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>
>
>
>> I'm wondering what Iver's theory would say regarding the usage of DHMOSIAi in this verse.
>>
>> KAI EPEBALON TAS CEIRAS EPI TOUS APOSTOLOUS KAI EQENTO AUTOUS EN THRHSEI DHMOSIAi
>>
>> george
>> gfsomsel
>
>No problem (after correcting your various typos):
>
>And they laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail.
>
>DHMOSIAi is an adjective that occurs in its expected position after the noun it modifies. It is just 
>a (public) JAIL, not a PUBLIC jail. There is no prominence to the final adjective. At the clause 
>level, the dative complement of to "put" (a trivalent verb) is in the least prominent position. 
>There is nothing surprising about them being put in a public jail after they have been "laid hands 
>on". The adjective DHMOSIOS carries so little semantic weight when combined with THRHSIS that it is 
>left out in the similar sentence in Acts 4:3. On the other hand THRHSIS is a more general word than 
>English jail, basically meaning "(place of) keeping", so the word DHMOSIOS helps to clarify that the 
>text is talking about an official place for keeping alleged criminals, what we call a jail.
>
>There is much more prominence to DHMOSIAi in Acts 16:37 as shown by the relative placement of the 
>constituents.
>
>Iver Larsen
>
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