[B-Greek] Martyrdom of Polycarp 9:1
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sun Dec 28 21:41:43 EST 2008
It's possible that the idea behind the dative is that the
voice came TO Polycarp, but (1) the FWNE EVENETO
EK is a fairly well established usage and nowhere in the
NT at least, does the voice come TO anyone, it just comes.
Not that this proves anything. I know that the bat qol is also
common in Rabbinic writings and it would be interesting to
see if there the usage is always absolute as well, although
this would prove even less. (2) If the idea was that the
voice came to Polycarp I would expect PROS or EIS with
an accusative, but of course the dative could also be used.
(3) There seems to be a contrast with the previous verse where
WHEN he was being led in there was silence, and but now
WHEN he is entering the voice is heard. So I would take it as
a dative of time. A genitive absolute is itself a type of
genitive of time (within the time x was happening, y happened)
but maybe the dative of time tries to pin point the time to a more
definite point.
Mark L.
--- On Sun, 12/28/08, Bert de Haan <dehaanaf at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Bert de Haan <dehaanaf at gmail.com>
Subject: [B-Greek] Martyrdom of Polycarp 9:1
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Sunday, December 28, 2008, 2:26 PM
Τῷ δὲ Πολυκάρπῳ εἰσιόντι εἰς τὸ
στάδιον φωνὴ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἐγένετο·
Ἴσχυε, Πολύκαρπε, καὶ ἀνδρίζου.
TWi DE POLUKARPWi EISIONTI EIS TO STADION FWNH EX OURANOU EGENETO:
ISCUE, POLUKARPE, KAI ANDRIZOU.
Rodney A. Whitacre in A Patristic Greek Reader says that TWi DE
POLUKARPWi EISIONTI is dative for time. (Actually he says dative
participle for time but I understand him to include the noun.) He
cites Smyth 14989. "In expressions of time a participle is often used
with the dative of the person interested in the action of the subject,
and especially to express the time that has passed since an action has
occurred (cp. "and this is the sixth month with her, who was called
barren" St. Luke i. 36)."
My problem is with this dative for time. First of all, I don't
understand some of Smyth's examples;
-In Luke 1:36 the time is specified apart from the dative and the
dative makes sense without calling it a dative of time.
- His next example P. Pr. 321c, APOROUNTI D' AUTWi ERCETAI PROMHQEUS
Prometheus comes to him in his perplexity.
The dative here I understand to be a result of ERCETAI, coming to him.
APOROUNTI could just be in apposition to AUTWi.
- X.A.6.3.10. CENOFWNTI POREUOMENWi hOI hIPPEIS ENTUGCANOUSI
PRESBUTAIS while Xenophon was on the march, his horsemen fell in with
some old men. The two words in the dative seem to be in an absolute
construction. I would understand this sentence the exact same way if
the two datives were genitives. Is it possible that a "dative
absolute," unlike the genitive absolute, always refers to time? In
this sentence I can't think of another reason for the dative other
than time. This last example I think is like the passage from
Martyrdom in that it is absolute. Is this construction so common that
the datives from this sentence of Martyrdom of Polycarp likely are
dative of time? And when/while Polycarp entered the stadium there
came a voice from heaven: "Be strong Polycarp and courageous." Could
it just indicate an indirect object? "A voice from heaven came to
Polycarp entering the stadium: " Be strong Polycarp and courageous."
Thank you.
Bert de Haan.
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