[B-Greek] Apocalypse of Peter

George F Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Sat Jan 7 05:14:43 EST 2006


On Sat, 07 Jan 2006 09:46:47 +0100 "Thomas J. Kraus" <t.j.kraus at web.de>
writes:
> On one of the two preserved fragments of a parchment codex with text
> passages from the Apocalypse of Peter, the first few lines of folio 
> one,
> recto, reads as follows:
> 
> [PAR]EXOMAI TOIS KLHTOIS MOU KAI EKKLEKTOIS MOU,
> hON EAN AITHSWNTAI ME EK THS KOLASEWS ...
> "I will give to my called and my chosen whomsoever they will (would) 
> ask me
> for out of punishment ..."
> 
> Leaving theological implications and interpretations aside (how can 
> someone
> who is already being punished be released out of that anyway?), one
> interpreter suggested that the request granted to the "called" and 
> "chosen"
> refers to the present and thus is to be fulfilled in the present 
> because of
> the aorist subjunctive AITHSWNTAI
> 
> I take this as a conditional with future tense in the apodosis and 
> EAV +
> subjunctive in the protasis: then it should be a prospective case
> (eventualis).
> To me the EAN + subjunctive (here aorist) also points to something 
> in the
> future which one reckons to come true/to happen.
> 
> Am I wrong here? Thanks in advance.
> 
> Thomas J. Kraus
______________

There doesn't really seem to be a conditional here.  hON EAN AITHSWNTAI
is simply "whatever they request."  PAREXOMAI is present though sometimes
the present is use futuristically.  As regards being released from any
punishment, it doesn't state that they will be released from it but that
they will have their requests granted.  Perhaps you are thinking of
KOLASIS as referring to eternal punishment.  If so, that is not always
the case.  Ignatius in his letter to the Romans 5 wrote

KAKAI KOLASEIS TOU DIABOLOU EP' EME ERXESQWSAN, MONON hINA IHSOU XRISTOU
EPITUXW

Let the evil punishments of the Devil befall me, only that I might attain
Jesus Christ.

george
gfsomsel
___________


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