[B-Greek] Left order prominence and construction -- Acts 5.18
frjsilver at optonline.net
frjsilver at optonline.net
Sat Dec 30 11:12:55 EST 2006
Dear Friends --
It seems to me that 'public' or 'common' work well enough for two reasons.
First, these are on the Occam's razor side of possible renderings without getting editorial.
Second, it's clear from the text that the Apostles were arrested by Temple guards at the behest of the Kohen ha Gadol and the Tsadiqqim for *religious* offenses.
Since the Temple, as well attested elsewhere in the NT, clearly had a police force, and religious authorities could arrest people for religious offenses, it stands to reason that there must have been some sort of holding facility for prisoners until they could be tried before the Synedrion.
So the phrase EN THRHSEI DHMOSIAi may be merely St Luke's shorthand way of pointing out that the Apostles were NOT held in a Temple jail, but in the 'common prison' AS IF they'd been arrested by Roman (or at least municipal) police for a civil offense -- which wasn't the case. Hence St Luke's clarification.
We can also remember that St Paul was regularly rolled up by the same authorities and flogged, but with fewer blows than most of his fellow Jews, because he claimed CIVIS ROMANUS SUM. The privileges of Roman citizenship insulated him from certain local judicial processes, and eventuated in his being politely beheaded at Rome, where St Peter was treated like the outlander he was, and crucifed.
I hope these broader contexts help a little to explain EN THRHSEI DHMOSIAi.
As far as 'left order prominence' is concerned, it's clear to me, at least, that it's all a matter of style and/or emphasis. This is quite unlike English, in which word order expresses or even determines syntax and, as a result, comprehension -- a necessity in any language so lacking in grammatical inflections.
Peace and blessings of Christ's birth to all.
Father James Silver
Monk James
Orthodox Church in America
----- Original Message -----
From: George F Somsel
Date: Saturday, December 30, 2006 9:40 am
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Left order prominence and construction -- Acts 5.18
To: Iver Larsen , BG
> Iver,
>
> While Robertson may render this as "in public ward" in his _Word
> Pictures_, Barrett in his 2 vol ICC commentary on Acts renders
> it "and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in prison
> publicly", noting that the RSV, NEB and NJB render it as an adj.
> In LSJ it would seem that the appearance of DHMOSIOS in the fem
> dat sg is fairly universally the use as an adv. I am not able
> to examine every usage since I don't have all of the documents
> cited. The fact that it appears in the dative in proximity to
> EN THRHSEI which is likewise fem dat sg is simply one of those
> unhappy coincidences which serve to cause confusion. Had Luke
> used another construction rather than EQENTO AUTOUS EN THRHSEI,
> perhaps using EIS + acc, this would not have occurred since in
> that case DHMOSIAi would have stood out as not being in
> agreement and therefore PLAINLY an adverbial usage. The
> alternative, the use of FULAKH, would have produced results in
> no way different since it is also fem. The
> passage in Mt regarding John the Baptist has EDHSEN [AUTON] KAI
> EN FULAKHi APEQETO. Apparently the idiom for placing someone in
> custody was a TIQHMI (or a compound thereof) + EN + dat. The
> obvious culprit here is the use of EN + dat which has introduced
> this confusion. Wallace in _Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics_,
> virtually acknowledges that DHMOSIAi is to be considered
> adverbial when he states "But since the dative is normally
> related to a verb rather than to a noun, there may be times of
> confusion" (p 171). The only instance I have found of DHMOSIOS
> being used with a noun signifying a place of custody is in LSJ
> under FULAKH where he states "5. place for keeping others in,
> ward, prison, DHMOSIA F. D.S. [Diodorus Siculus]10.30." Note
> that in this usage DHMOSIOS is clearly an adj, but it is also
> NOT in the dat. All uses in the NT [Acts exclusively] and in
> the LXX [2 & 3 Macc] are in the fem dat sg and should be
> construed as adverbial. In the case of the passage
> specifically under consideration, the verb(s) to which DHMOSIAi
> is related are EPIBALLW [EPEBALON] and TIQHMI [EQENTO]. It is
> striking that it is placed last. This is about as far to the
> right as it could possibly be placed and still be in the same
> county. It would appear that this does severe damage to your
> theory of left-order prominence.
>
> george
> gfsomsel
> _________
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Iver Larsen
> To: BG
> Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2006 7:59:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Left order prominence and construction --
> Acts 5.18
>
>
> George,
>
> What about checking LSJ and other Greek literature? The
> adjective DHMOSIOS is alive and kicking, and
> the three other data in Acts are not sufficient to disregard the
> usage of the word as a simple
> adjective
> in 5:18, when the context demands an adjective.
>
> But I am happy to see that you have understood the principle of
> word order placement in Greek well
> enough to know that this principle would make your suggestion of
> it being an adverb in focal
> position untenable.
>
> Robertson's word pictures has "In public ward (EN DHMOSIAi
> THRHSEI). As in 4:3 only with DHMOSIAi
> (public) added, in the public prison, perhaps not the "common"
> prison, but any prison is bad enough.
> In verse 19 it is called "the prison" (THS FULAKHS), the guardhouse."
>
> I am not sure what a "common" prison is in English, but he is
> probably hinting at the KJV and RSV
> translations that say "common prison" . There are several
> different words for a prison or jail, and
> THRHSIS is not a common word for jail, since it is rather
> generic meaning "keeping (place)". Or
> should we say a "lockup" to get closer to the feel of the Greek
> word?. So, the only function of
> DHMOSIAi is to clarify that this holding place is not just any
> lockup in the temple precincts, but
> the "public prison" as Robertson calls it or the "city jail"
> which Carl says is better English. How
> many jails were there in the city? If there was a contrast
> intended between a public lockup and
> another kind of lockup, the word order should have been EN
> DHMOSIAi THRHSEI. The more common word
> for a prison is FULAKH, but Luke and Matthew also use
> DESMWTHRION. In fact, the same jail in Acts
> 5:18 is being referred to by 3 different words.
>
> Bruce says that "the temple authorities... had them locked up
> overnight." It was detention until
> trial.
>
> Iver
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "George F Somsel"
> To: "Iver Larsen" ;
> Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 6:15 PM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Left order prominence and construction --
> Acts 5.18
>
>
> While, as someone on the list said earlier, I hesitate to
> criticise my betters, if it seems that
> they are wrong, so be it. .....
>
> The question then becomes "What does this say regarding your
> theory of left-order prominence?"
>
> george
> gfsomsel
> _________
>
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