[B-Greek] Acts 13,48

Peter Streitenberger ps2866 at bingo-ev.de
Fri Sep 24 09:24:10 EDT 2010


Dear Mark,

good to hear form you again - thank you for your answer !

>What does "a headless relative clause" mean?
I think it means that the relative pronoun introducing the relative clause has no antecedent in the main clause but stands for its own. And that's my point: I guess TA EQNH is the referent of hOSOI. The beliving Gentiles are further specified in the relative clause as predestined to eternal live (TETAGMENOI if not medium, then maybe a passivum divinum). 

Yours 
Peter, Germany



Peter asked

<in Acts 13,48 we read: AKOUONTA DE TA EQNH ECAIREN, KAI EDOXAZON TON  LOGON TOU 
KURIOU, KAI EPISTEUSAN hOSOI HSAN TETAGMENOI EIS ZWHN AIWNION.

Parsons/Culy  (Acts, A Handbook on the Greek Text) write (p.269): "hOSOI. The  
relative pronoun introduces a headless relative clause [...] that serves  as the 
subject of EPISTEUSAN"

I ask myself whether this is the  best way to understand this relative clause. 
Isn't it possible to regard  "hOSOI HSAN TETAGMENOI EIS ZWHN AIWNION" as 
attributive to "TA EQNH"?  The relative clause introduced by hOSOI would then be 
a further  description of TA EQNH and no new subject is necessary. The head of 
the  relative clause would be TA EQNH.>

Hi, Peter,

I think OSOI k.t.l. refers to a subset of the Gentiles who not only rejoiced and 
glorified the word but believed in it.  But it is possible that Luke meant to 
say that all the Gentiles in question believed, in which case OSOI k.t.l.  would 
be in apposition to TA EQNH, at least according to the sense.

What does "a headless relative clause" mean?





FWSFOROS MARKOS



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