[B-Greek] Acts 17:16 QEWROUNTOS/QEWROUNTI
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sun Oct 15 04:44:55 EDT 2006
> ACTS 17:16 EN DE TAIS AQHNAIS EKDECOMENOU AUTOUS TOU PAULOU
> PARWXUNETO TO PNEUMA AUTOU EN AUTWi QEWROUNTOS KATEIDWLON OUSAN THN
> POLIN.
>
> Parsons/Culy identify QEWROUNTOS as a genitive absolute. Barrett
> (Acts ICC) suggests that the genitive QEWROUNTOS looks back to AUTOU
> whereas QEWROUNTI (Byzantine) to AUTWi.
BDF (§417) has a nice and clear description. They say:
"The circumstantial participle as a clause in the sentence is still very much in use..., either referring to a noun
(pronoun) in the same sentence and in agreement with it (conjunctive participle), or used absolutely; in the latter the
subject and participle are in the genitive."
I think it is helpful to think of clauses rather than just phrasal constituents. A sentence is made up of clauses, and
clauses are made up of phrases. So, in this complex sentence, we see a main clause with two subordinate clauses. It
shows the power of subordination in Greek. The main focus point is not Paul as such, but the provoking of his spirit,
because that is the subject of the main clause. The time and location of this event is indicated by the first clause
which is a genitive absolute:
EN DE TAIS AQHNAIS EKDECOMENOU AUTOUS TOU PAULOU
The initial locative phrase is part of the circumstantial clause. Normally (or is it always?), such situational
background genitive absolutes occur before the main clause.
The reason or occasion for Paul's feelings is then given in a following conjunctive participle clause
QEWROUNTOS KATEIDWLON OUSAN THN POLIN
I believe it is quite common for reason clauses to come after the main clause, but I suppose if the reason clause was to
be emphasized, it could also come before, if there is not already been a genitive absolute clause in that position. I
haven't investigated this, but the genitive absolute in, e.g., Matt 25,5 could be said to indicate reason.
I would agree with Barret that this is best seen as a conjunctive participle clause rather than a genitive absolute,
because it follows the main clause, because it can readily be attached to AUTOU (Paul), and because it parallels the
alternative reading with a dative conjunctive participle.
Iver Larsen
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