[b-greek] Re: Acts 7:59

From: Iver Larsen (alice-iver_larsen@wycliffe.org)
Date: Thu Mar 22 2001 - 02:02:22 EST


>
> > Hello Biblical Greek,
> >
> > Acts 7:59
> > And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive
> > my spirit.
> > (KJV)
> >
> > Could the Greek grammatically allow that "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"
> > was said by the "they" instead of by Stephen..... ?
>
> Nope. "Calling" is a masculine singular participle, so it can only
> refer to Stephen. If we fill in the ellipsis, we have "They stoned
> Stephen as he was calling on God etc."

Just to add a comment to what Dave said:

It may be helpful to look at the grammatical analysis of the sentence
ELIQOBOLOUN TON STEFANON EPIKALOUMENON KAI LEGONTA ....

The sentence in itself is very simple with a verb in imperfect (they were
stoning- focusing on the duration of the process) followed by a complex noun
phrase as object (NP-O). The NP-O consists of an arthrous head noun (the
Stephen) and two coordinated accusative, present participles of which the second
has a complement in the form of a quote. These two participles modify the head
noun, so they describe Stephen at that time.
This can be translated into English in various ways from the extreme "Greekish
English" to more natural English, e.g.:
1) And they were stoning Stephen calling out and saying...
2) Then they stoned Stephen who was calling out (to Jesus) and saying...
3) Then they threw stones at Stephen and killed him as/while he was praying out
loud...

Iver Larsen


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