Re: A witness ?

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 01 1999 - 20:04:55 EST


At 3:47 PM -0500 4/1/99, dano@ott.net wrote:
>This question recently came up.. and I wanted to run it by the
>majors here :)
>
>
>
>Luke 1:1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in
>order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed
>among us,
>2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning
>were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;
>3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of
>all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most
>excellent Theophilus,
>4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein
>thou hast been instructed.
>
>03l-luke-01-01 EPEIDHPER POLLOI EPEXEIRHSAN
>ANATACASQAI DIHGHSIN PERI TWN PEPLHROFORHMENWN
>EN HMIN PRAGMATWN
>03l-luke-01-02 KAQWS PAREDOSAN HMIN OI AP ARXHS
>AUTOPTAI KAI UPHRETAI GENOMENOI TOU LOGOU
>03l-luke-01-03 EDOCE KAMOI PARHKOLOUQHKOTI
>ANWQEN PASIN AKRIBWS KAQECHS SOI GRAYAI KRATISTE
>QEOFILE
>03l-luke-01-04 INA EPIGNWS PERI WN KATHXHQHS
>LOGWN THN ASFALEIAN

Well, in my view, he says in verse two that he is among the recipients
(hHMIN) of a tradition that was handed down to these recipients (PAREDOSAN)
by those who were/became (GENOMENOI) original eye-witnesses AUTOPTAI and
hUPHRETAI TOU LOGOU.
I don't see how this could in any sense of the word qualify the writer of
this sentence as an eye-witness. The big question in verse two is the
relationship of the participle GENOMENOI: does it refer to both AUTOPTAI
and hUPHRETAI? or do we in fact have three categories here: (1) original
eye-witnesses; (2) emerging servants of the word; and (3) recipients of
traditions transmitted by the eye-witnesses and intermediate carriers of
the word. There are, I believe, people who espouse the view that there is a
general group including both the eye-witnesses and the servants and that
GENOMENOI belongs with both; and there are others who are inclined to think
that GENOMENOI refers only to the hUPHRETAI and that that phrase points to
an intermediate phase in the transmission of the tradition. Reasonable
grammatical arguments can be offered, I think, for both views, but I don't
think there's any universal consensus on this question.

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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