Re: Syntax of Mark 2:2

From: Antonio Eduardo Costa Pereira (costa@ufu.br)
Date: Mon Apr 12 1999 - 22:27:26 EDT


George Blaisdell wrote:

> When I read your posts [like this one], my joy is full indeed! And I
> can tell you, at least speaking for myself, I struggle much less with
> your English than with Greek! Your English is just fine!!

I am happy that I was able to express myself in English.
If my interpretation is not right, but people can understand it, they
can correct it for me.

By the way, I had an argumentation (friendly argumentation, of course)
with Dr. Costa about PRAXEIS 13:1. It states (I will use the accents,
because I cannot get used to Greek without accents):

H)=SAN DE\ E)N A)NTIOXEI/A| KATA\ TH\N
OU)=SAN E)KKLHSI/AN PROFH=TAI KAI\ DIDA/SKALOI

I think that this line says clearly that there was only one congregation in
A)NTIOXEI/A| . Here is how I would translate it: Prophets and
teachers were in the chapter of the Church that is in Antioch...
Prophets and teachers were in the local congregation of Antioch...
Or else: Prophets and teachers were in the congregation that is in Antioch...

Dr. Costa doesn't agree with me. He says that the Greek article
(unlike English article, but like Portuguese and Spanish
article) has a generalizing force. His translation
sounds something like: Prophets and teachers were present at
the Assembly that happens to be in Antioch...
His interpretation is based on the well know Attic construction,
where the verb TUGXA/NW is droped if the expression is used
in E)PIRH/MATI. I will try to explain this. In Attic, you may have a
sentence like: hH E)KKLHSI/A TUGXA/NEI OU)=SA E)N A)NTIOXEI/A| .
If you want to put this sentence under the preposition KATA/,
you drop TUGXA/NEI and put the rest under KATA/
The meaning is the same as the sentence with TUGXA/NEI, i.e.,
"the congregation that happens to be in Antioch". That explanation would be
fine, if we were talking about Attic Greek. However, I cannot
remember many instances of TUGXA/NW + METOXH/ (is there any?) in GNT.
Dr. Costa says that, even if TUGXA/NW + METOXH/ is not
usual in GNT , the construction with a
solitary METOXH/ was kept, with the same meaning...

My interpretation: There was only one congregation in Antioch (in
Uberlandia there are... 453 congregations... :)
Dr. Costa's interpretation: The text doesn't tell about how many
congregations there were in Antioch. It is possible that there was
only one, but nobody can tell this from the text. However, the
congregation about which the text is talking, happens to be in Antioch.
It is quite far fetched, isn't it?

Anyway, I would like you to help us with this question. In Uberlandia,
everybody aggrees with Dr. Costa (that is why there are 453 congregations
around :) He may be right. However, does the text say so?

Navarro.

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