[B-Greek] EN TWi EQNEI MOU Acts 26:4--what nation?

Bryant J. Williams III bjwvmw at com-pair.net
Tue Dec 11 01:43:13 EST 2007


Dear Webb,

It appears that what is needed is a fuller passage,
THN MEN OUN BIWSIN MOU [THN] EK NEOTHTOS THN AP' ARXHS GENOMENHN EN TWi EQNEI EN
TE hIEROSOLUMOIS ISASI PANTES [hOI] IOUDAIOI,

1.    BDF, paragraph 447 (3) regarding "resumptive OUN"; paragraph 451(1),
        "(1)    OUN one of the more frequent particles in the NT, is the most
common of these. It is fairly well distributed in all books, although it is far
commoner in the narrative books and commonest by far in Jn (of the Johannine
Epistles only 3 Jn 8; it is interpolated in I Jn 2:24, 4:19). It does not always
furnish a strictly causal connection, but may be used more loosely as a temporal
connective in the continuation or resumption of a narrative. In Acts, Lk is in
the habit  of emphasizing OUN in a narrative sentence beginning with a noun or
pronoun (or articular participle) with MEN, which need not be followed by a
contrasting clause with DE. After parenthetical remarks OUN indicates a return
to the main theme (resumptive)."

2.    BDF, paragraph 444 (4), "In longer enumerations a further TE may be added
to TE (... KAI), but other combinations of TE and KAI may be used." Under the
examples of (4) is A 9:15 EQNWN TE (om. TE HLP) KAI BASILEWN hUIWN TE ISRAHL,
26:10F., I Clem 20.3. On the other hand, Lk 22:66 TO PRESBUTERION TOU LAOU,
ARXIEREIS TE KAI GRAMMATEIS; the latter is an explanatory phrase in apposition
since otherwise the art. would necessarily have bee used."

3.    FF Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 441,
        "XXVI. 4
            MEN OUN]    'Well, then'.
            BIWSIN]    The two other earliest known occurrences of this word are
also Jewish; they appear in the preface to Sir. (THS ENNOMOU BIWSEWS) and in an
inscription dated A.D. 60-80 recording how Jews of Phrygia were honoured by
their synagogue DIA TE THN ENAPETON AUTWN [BI]WSIN K.T.L (Ramsey, Cities and
Bishoprics of Phrygia, ii, p. 650). Its first known use in payria is in the
sixth century A.D.

            EN TWi EQNEI MOU]    For this use of EQNOS see xxiv.10. Here the
phrase may refer particularly to his fellow- Jews in Cilicia, as it seems to be
contrasted with the following EN TE 'IEROSOLUMOIS.

            ISASI]    The classical form, instead of Koine OIDASI. (NOTE: cf.
iste in Eph 5.5).

        'St. Paul, too, when he called to speak before King Agrippa, and Queen
Berenice, and the Praeses (or Procurator) Festus, and the most distinguished
society of Caesarea and of the whole province, took care (if we trust, as we
ought to do, Luke's account in Acts xxvi.) not to employ vulgar inflection of
verbs, but to say ISASIN PANTES 'IOUDAIOI, not OIDASIN. In his epistles, he c
onstantly has OIDAMEN, -ATE, -ASI; but his schoolmaster at Tarsus had warned him
against such vulgarisms; "ISMEN, ISTE, ISASIN," he must have said, "are the true
forms which you must employ if you care to be considered a cultivated speaker or
writer" ' (Blass, PG, p. 9).

    XXIV. 10 (pp. 423-424)

        TWi EQNEI TOUTWi]    As in ver. 2. For EHNOS used by Jews of their own
nation cf. also xxvi.4; xxviii. 19 (where Paul is again the speaker; Lk. vii. 5;
xxiii. 2. It is used of the Jewish nation by Gentiles in x. 22. The word in the
sing. was used of an orgainzed political community, e.g., of the Jews at
Alexandria, with the EQNARXHS at their head.

So it appears that Paul's usage as recorded by Luke is that EN TWi EQNEI MOU is
referring to his own Jewish people, in this case, Paul's native Tarsus.

En Xristwi,

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Webb Mealy" <webb at selftest.net>
To: "'Biblical Greek'" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 8:46 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] EN TWi EQNEI MOU Acts 26:4--what nation?


EN TWi EQNEI MOU EN TE hIEROSOLUMOIS (Acts 26:4)



Surely the expression EN TWi EQNEI MOU here means among the Jewish people,
as opposed, for example, to among the Cicilians? I wasnt surprised to find
that Lattimore, not an expert on matters of Judaism or New Testament
studies, translated the phrase,

both in my own country and in Jerusalem,



presumably being influenced by the information in Acts that Paul was born in
Tarsus (Acts 22:3). But I cant imagine a Jew saying TO EQNOS
MOUparticularly to another Jew, even a half-Jew like Agrippaand meaning
anything other than the people of Israel. Right?? But then again, no less a
translation than TEV renders it, at first in my own country and then in
Jerusalem.



Perhaps this question straddles or lies outside the borders of the scope of
the list. I welcome inputI leave it to peoples discretion whether to
answer on- or off-list.



Thanks,



Webb Mealy


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