[B-Greek] Dative Absolute? Archives
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at ioa.com
Mon Jan 23 13:30:48 EST 2006
On Jan 23, 2006, at 12:11 PM, Eric Weiss wrote:
>> Acts 22:17 -- EGENETO DE MOI hUPOSTREYANTI EIS IEROUSALHM KAI
>> PROSEUCOMENOU MOU EN TWi hIERWi GENESQAI ME EN EKSTASEI
>
> So, a dative absolute and a genitive absolute side by side and in
> the same sentence?
> Any difference in meaning or force between them, or why both are
> used, rather than 2
> datives or two genitives? On the other hand, the subject of the
> dative absolute and the
> subject of the genitive absolute are the same as the subject of
> the infinitive phrase -
> yet I thought "absolutes" were used when their subjects were NOT
> the subjects of the
> main clause - or is this not the case here because the main
> clause is an infinitive,
> clause, with the subject in the accusative case? Help!! ;^)
For my part, I would never call MOI hUPOSTREYANTI EIS IEROUSALHM a
dative absolute. Rather, I would understand the basic syntactic
structure here as the typic Semiticizing EGENETO ... KAI subject-
accusative + verb-infinitive that is usually translated, "And it came
to pass that X did Y" See Conybeare and Stock §41" Introduction of
the Sentence by a Verb of Being. Very often in imitation of Hebrew
idiom the whole sentence is introduced by EGENETO or ESTAI." In the
Greek we have EGENETO (DE) + KAI corresponding to the Hebrew
WaYeHi ... Wa ...
I would take the PROSEUCOMENOU MOU EN TWi hIERWi as internal to the
GENESQAI ME EN EKSTASEI element as a genitive absolute.
I'd take the whole as "And it happened to me after I returned to
Jerusalem that as I was praying in the temple I entered into a
trance ..."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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