[B-Greek] Syntax of Col 1:22 - Dr. Conrad

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Aug 18 12:11:04 EDT 2009


On Aug 18, 2009, at 12:05 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:

> Dr. Conrad:
>
> You wrote:
>
>> I would English it as I noted above: "There fell from his
>> eyes something like scales."
>
> Acts 9:18 καὶ εὐθέως ἀπέπεσαν αὐτοῦ  
> ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ὡς λεπίδες,
>
> I'm trying to understand the syntax here. Can you show me how you  
> arrived at this translation by reviewing my questions below...
>
> "There fell" (ἀπέπεσαν)
> "from" (is this: 1) the AP from ἀπ-έπεσαν, 2) AUTOU, or 3)  
> APO)
> his eyes (if AUTOU construes with APEPESAN, where does this pronoun  
> come from? From TWN?)

You really do want a woodenly-literal word-for-word version, I guess.  
OK.

hWS LEPIDES is what I English as "something like scales"

APEPESAN I English literally as "fell off"

AUTOU I English as "of/from him"

APO TWN OFQALMWN I English as "from the eyes."


I take the AUTOU as genitive of separation construing as a complement  
of APEPESAN.


> --- On Tue, 8/18/09, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Syntax of Col 1:22 - Dr. Conrad
>> To: "Mitch Larramore" <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
>> Cc: "greek B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 5:42 AM
>>
>> On Aug 18, 2009, at 1:00 AM, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>>
>>> Dr.Conrad
>>>
>>> You wrote:
>>>
>>> Acts 9:18 καὶ εὐθέως ἀπέπεσαν
>> αὐτοῦ
>>> ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ὡς
>> λεπίδες,
>>> ἀνέβλεψέν τε καὶ ἀναστὰς
>>> ἐβαπτίσθη  [KAI EUQEWS APEPESAN AUTOU
>> APO TWN OFQALMWN hWS
>>> LEPIDES, ANEBLEYEN TE KAI ANASTAS EBAPTISQH]
>>>
>>> Here it might be argued that AUTOU should be construed
>> with OFQALMWN.
>>> To be sure the clause would be Englished as “There
>> fell from his eyes
>>> something like scalles   .. “ I think
>> however that AUTOU here
>>> probably construes directly with APEPESAN rather than
>> with OFQALMWN.
>>>
>>> How would you translate AUTOU with APEPESAN, assuming
>> the singular AUTOU construes with the plural APEPESAN?
>>
>> I would English it as I noted above: "There fell from his
>> eyes something like scales." But I would understand the
>> construction of AUTOU as ablatival genitive "from him"
>> construing with the adverbial prefix of APEPESAN. The verb
>> appears to be used either directly with an ablatival
>> genitive or with EK or APO and genitive indicating what a
>> person or things falls 'from.'
>>
>>
>> Carl W. Conrad
>> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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