[B-Greek] XENIZONTA TINA--Acts 17:20

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 12 10:32:23 EST 2007


What Carl failed to mention, though I'm sure that this was what he had in mind, is that the accusative is not infrequently used as an adverb which is what would be required here.  Porter states the matter fairly succintly
   
  1.5. Adverbial Usage
  In some instances an adjective may be used—often in the accusative case—as a modifier of a verbal rather than a substantival element. These examples are confined to a relatively small group of words, and[ appear to have been treated by users of Greek as adverbial in function, even though they might be called accusatives of respect or accusatives of time (see Chapter 4 sections 2.3.3 and 2.3.4).
       
  Porter, S. E. (1999). Idioms of the Greek New Testament (121). Sheffield: JSOT.


   
  george
  gfsomsel
   
  Therefore, O faithful Christian, search for truth, hear truth, 
  learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
  defend the truth till death. 
       - Jan Hus
  ___________

Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:


  
On Nov 11, 2007, at 9:59 PM, Webb Mealy wrote:

> XENIZONTA GAR TINA EISFEREIS EIS TAS AKOAS hHMWN (Acts 17:20)

> I'm tempted to understand this as saying, "You're bringing somewhat
> unfamiliar ideas to our ears".

I think that's pretty good, actually.

> Can "somewhat" be the nuance brought in by TINA, or is it really, 
> "You're
> bringing some unfamiliar ideas to our ears"?

See BDAG s.v. TIS (indef. rather than interr.): 1.b. (adj.) beta: 
"serving to moderate or heighten"; aleph: "to moderate an expr. that 
is too definite (Just., D. 48, 1 [λόγος LOGOS] . . . 
παράδοξός τις . . . δοκεῖ μοι εἶναι 
PARADOXOS TIS ... DOKEI MI EINAI [your statement], in my judgment, 
does not make much sense …"

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)

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george
gfsomsel

Therefore, O faithful Christian, search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.

 - Jan Hus
_________
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