Re: Infinitives in Acts 11:26

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 06 1998 - 10:03:56 EDT


At 8:21 AM -0500 10/6/98, Dick Gorski wrote:
>Friends--
>
>The second half of Acts 11:26 contains the finite verb EGENETO and three
>infinitives. The first two infinitives SUNACQHNAI and DIDAXAI look to me to
>be indicating the purpose or result of Barnabas' stay in Antioch, but the
>third infinitive CRHMATISAI does not seem to function in parallel with the
>other two. How is this construction to be understood?

I think there's something of an anacoluthon here, although there's no real
problem understanding what is being said in the sequence as a whole.

The construction opens with EGENETO AUTOIS and the first two infinitives.
It would be easiest to understand the infinitives phrases as SUBJECTS of
EGENETO:

        KAI ENIAUTON hOLON SUNACQHNAI EN THi EKKLHSIAi
        KAI DIDAXAI OCLON hIKANON

i.e., these are happenstances that "occurred to them" or happenings that
"came to pass for them" . . .

BUT the third infinitive phrase has the normal subject accusative with the
infinitive: CRHMATISAI TE PRWTWS EN ANTIOCEIAi TOUS MAQHTAS CRISTIANOUS; I
think one might say actually that this really is a THIRD happening that
"came to pass for them"; what makes it seem awkward is that TOUS MAQHTAS
seems to subsume the original dative AUTOIS that was used with the EGENETO.
If you conveyed the sense of EGENETO AUTOIS as "And their experience was
that ..." then the three infinitive phrases can all be neatly attached:
"not only that they gathered for a whole year in the congregation, but also
that they taught a sizable number, and that the disciples in Antioch first
assumed the name 'Christians.'

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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