[B-Greek] EINAI TON CRISTON IHSOUN, Act 18:5

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Tue Nov 13 13:59:18 EST 2007


On Nov 13, 2007, at 4:18 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:

>> Acts 18:5, 28 (S-P). Both Acts passages
>> read, εἶναι τὸν χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν EINAI TON
>> CRISTON IHSOUN. Note the differences in translation: “Jesus was the
>> Christ” (AV, NASB, NIV) vs. “the Christ was Jesus” (RSV, NEB).
>
> There are similar constructions in Acts, e.g.
> Acts 9:20-22 EKHRUSSEN TON IHSOUN hOTI hOUTOS ESTIN hO hUIOS TOU  
> QEOU...
> (he proclaimed (about) Jesus that he is the son of God)...
> SUMBIBAZWN hOTI hOUTOS ESTIN hO CRISTOS.
> (demonstrating that this one is the Messiah)
>
> Acta 17:3 hOTI hOUTOS ESTIN hO CRISTOS [hO] IHSOUS hON EGW  
> KATAGGELW hUMIN
> (that this one is the Messiah, this Jesus whom I am proclaiming to  
> you)
>
> Because of such related passages, it seems to me that the intended  
> sense of 18:5 and 28 is also that Paul was proclaiming to the Jews  
> that Jesus (whom they had heard about) was indeed the expected  
> Messiah. I also think the word order suggests that the new  
> information comes first and known information comes last, but I  
> accept that we have different views about the use of word order, so  
> I won't press that argument.

ACTS 18:5 hWS DE KATHLQON APO THS MAKEDONIAS hO TE SILAS KAI hO  
TIMOQEOS, SUNEICETO TWi LOGWi hO PAULOS DIAMARTUROMENOS TOIS  
IOUDAIOIS EINAI TON CRISTON IHSOUN.

As I stated before I have reservations about analyzing EINAI TON  
CRISTON IHSOUN as new/old information or topic/comment. In ACTS 18:5  
this clause is embedded deeply in background information in the story  
of Paul and friends/enemies at Corinth. I read EINAI TON CRISTON  
IHSOUN as a synopsis of TWi LOGWi not as a specific speech act.  
Therefore I would say the clause as a whole has a single referent and  
is coreferential with TWi LOGWi. It functions as a label for the  
KHRUGMA. For this and other reasons forcing it into a topic/comment,  
new/old information framework seems counter productive.

Elizabeth Kline







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