[B-Greek] Acts 13,48

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Sep 24 09:31:02 EDT 2010


On Sep 24, 2010, at 9:24 AM, Peter Streitenberger wrote:

> 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 believing Gentiles are further specified in the relative clause as predestined to eternal live (TETAGMENOI if not medium, then maybe a passivum divinum). 

Sometimes the antecedent of a relative clause is omitted if it's obvious. So, in English, "Who steals my purse steals trash" -- where "who" implicitly means "Anyone who" or "He who ... " In the case of hOSOI there's an implicit TOSOI, so that hOSOI will be understood as "As many as ... "

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)

> 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?







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