[B-Greek] Do we have a remnant of Stephen's verbal speech inActs 7:15-16?

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Feb 26 00:11:41 EST 2010


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Blue Meeksbay" <bluemeeksbay at yahoo.com>
To: "Mark Lightman" <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 26. februar 2010 04:10
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Do we have a remnant of Stephen's verbal speech inActs 
7:15-16?


> Hi Mark!
>
> Good points! Maybe, awkward was not the right word. What I meant was there 
> could have been a clearer way to state the facts (if my assumption is 
> correct) – thus the different translations. It seems when one writes something 
> down one tries to make sure it is clear enough so it cannot be misconstrued. 
> Obviously, we fail more than we succeed at such a task. However, there seems 
> to be more latitude in spontaneous oratory which, while it might be understood 
> by the hearers, if written down could be less than clear.

It may be helpful to think about what the hearers already know and what Stephen 
assumed they would know.

1. Abraham bought the Machpelah cave in Hebron from Ephron, son of Zohar, and 
buried Sara there.
2. According to tradition, his son, Jacob, was also buried there besides Sara 
and Abraham.
3. Jacob had bought a piece of land in Shechem from the sons of Hamor for a 
bunch of silver money.

Now the text below says that (the old man) Jacob went to Egypt and died there, 
as did his 12 sons (our "fathers"). Their bones were all brought out of Egypt to 
be buried in the Promised Land. The text is very short and may be telescoped 
because the hearers already knew that Jacob was buried in Machpelah and "our 
fathers" were buried at the shrine in Shechem. So, what may well have happened 
is that the procession first stopped in Hebron and buried Jacob there, and then 
went on to Shechem and buried "our fathers" in Shechem. The text suggests that 
Abraham bought the land in Shechem, but as far as we know it was Jacob who did 
it. Abraham had been there and may have set his eye on a piece of land, or maybe 
even made a down payment, but we don't know that. At least he received 
permission to build an altar there, and that might culturally be interpreted as 
if he had put stakes on that piece of land at the oak of Moreh. Even if the text 
is not clear in all details, if people know the facts already, they can still 
get the intended meaning. It is possible that tradition at the time had credited 
the purchase of land in Shechem to Abraham rather than Jacob, because he built 
an altar there, and Abraham had higher status than Jacob. I don't know.

Iver Larsen
>>In Acts 7:15-16 Stephen says the following:
>>
>>KATEBH DE IAKWB EIS AIGUPTON KAI ETELEUTHSEN AUTOS KAI hOI PATERES hHMWN, KAI 
>>METETEQHSAN EIS SUCEM KAI ETEQHSAN EN TWi MNHMATI hWi WNHSATO ABRAAM TIMHS 
>>ARGURIOU PARA TWN hUIWN EMMWR EN SUCEM




More information about the B-Greek mailing list