[B-Greek] Acts 22:17 Septuagintal construction of a sort?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Wed Jan 25 14:54:11 EST 2006


On Jan 25, 2006, at 2:12 PM, RRedden604 at aol.com wrote:

> Dr Conrad et al,
>
> I've enjoyed the scholarly insights given on this exchange.  What  
> I  have to
> offer is just an interesting tidbit that is more illustrative than   
> definitive.
>
> I perused the Hebrew and LXX  examples given and others that  I  
> found, and I
> certainly see a Semitic influence present in Acts  22:17.   Picking  
> from many
> examples, I found a comparison of  Gen. 4:8 in Hebrew and Greek  
> very helpful.
>  Delitzsch's translation of the NT into Hebrew is  interesting.  I  
> realize,
> in general, translating the  Greek into Hebrew does not tell us  
> much about the
> Greek, but it is  interesting to notice how easily the Greek of  
> Acts 22:17 is
> translated into  Hebrew.   Delitzsch seems to make a very literal  
> translation
> of  the Greek into Hebrew (except for the final clause).  "It came  
> about when
> I  returned to Jerusalem, that I prayed in the sanctuary and the  
> hand of the
> Lord  was upon me." (If my translation needs polishing, please let  
> me  know).
> The NAS translation of Gen 4:8 reads: "And it came about when  they  
> were in
> the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed   
> him."

Gen 4:8 is of the type EGENETO + time-expression + KAI + indicative:  
KAI EGENETO EN TWi EINAI AUTOUS EN TWi PEDIWi KAI ANESTH KAIN EPI  
ABEL TON ADELFON AUTOU KAI APEKTEINEN AUTON. Here the substantive  
infinitive clause is governed by a preposition EN and is not part of  
the syntactical structure of EGENETO KAI ANESTH except as an  
adverbial temporal phrase.

> I
> certainly can see the similarity of structure in these literal   
> translations.  I
> found this interesting although it may not contribute  anything of  
> importance to
> the discussion.  (Cf. GKC section 111,  esp. p. 327, for insights).
>
> For those who have studied the Acts speeches of Paul in Greek,  
> could you
> tell us if those "quoted" speeches are more Semitic than Luke's  
> own  narration?
> I think this was recently touched on lightly, but would  like more  
> detail -
> if anyone has the time.
>
>
> Also, I would be interested in knowing how the versions handled the
> construction.  The DRA is straightforward, but since I don't know   
> Latin, I have no
> way of knowing if the Latin indicates a struggle with the  Greek.    
> I wonder,
> also, if those who are widely read in the Greek  papyri could share  
> with us any
> parallel examples that may  indicate this theory of  Semitic  
> influence is not
> as  significant as it seems.

Vulgate has: 17 factum est autem revertenti mihi in Hierusalem et  
oranti in templo fieri me in stupore mentis 18 et videre illum --  
interesting that BOTH participles are here put into the dative; this  
reflects an understanding of the Greek as EGENETO DE MOI  
hUPOSTREYANTI EIS IEROUSALHM KAI PROSEUCOMENWi EN TWi hIERWi GENESQAI  
EN EKSTASEI 18 KAI IDEIN AUTON ...  That is to say, the Latin  
translator(s) have in fact produced what is clearly a more elegant  
Latin formulation than the comparable Greek. If this proves anything  
at all, it's only that they felt the genitive absolute was  
inappropriate here, or else they would have transformed that into an  
ablative absolute.

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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