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

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Nov 12 11:09:59 EST 2007


On Nov 12, 2007, at 10:32 AM, George F Somsel wrote:

> 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.

I must demur here: I did not have this in mind at all and I don't  
think this is an instance of the adverbial accusative, but a common  
enough usage of the indefinite pronoun TIS in agreement with a noun. I  
think XENIZONTA TINA is a simple direct object of EISFEREIS.

Let me cite the whole sub-entry from BDAG:

	‏א‎. [aleph]  to moderate an expr. that is too definite (Just.,  
D. 48, 1 [λόγος] . . . παράδοξός τις . . .  
δοκεῖ μοι εἶναι {[LOGOS] ... PARADOXOS TIS ... DOKEI MOI  
EINAI} [your statement], in my judgment, does not make much sense;  
Diod. S. 1, 1, 3; Appian, Bell. Civ. 1, 15 §65 οἷά τινες  
δορυφόροι {hOIA TINES DORUFOROI} =as a kind of bodyguard)  
ἀπαρχήν τινα {APARCHN TINA} a kind of first-fruits Js 1:18  
(Appian, Bell. Civ. 3, 39 §162 τὶς μετάνοια=something  
like remorse; 3, 77 §314 συγγνώμη τις {SUGGNWMH TIS} =some  
kind of pardon).—So perh. δύο τινὰς τῶν μαθητῶν  
{DUO TINAS TWN MAQHTWN} several disciples, perhaps two Lk 7:18 (cp.  
Appian, Bell. Civ. 2, 59 §245 δύο τινάς {DUO TINAS} =a few  
[ships], about two; Jos., Ant. 16, 274). But the expr. in Ac 23:23  
τινὰς δύο τῶν ἑκατονταρχῶν {TINAS DUO TWN  
hEKATONARCWN} certainly means two, who simply cannot be more closely  
defined (s. W-S. §26, 1b; Rob. 742; Mlt-Turner 195).

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



> ___________
>
> 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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