Acts 14:18 μόλις & καταπαῦσαι + gen.art.inf.

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Stephen Hughes
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Acts 14:18 μόλις & καταπαῦσαι + gen.art.inf.

Post by Stephen Hughes »

There are a few points of grammar in this verse that I need help with -
Acts 14:18 wrote:Καὶ ταῦτα λέγοντες, μόλις κατέπαυσαν τοὺς ὄχλους τοῦ μὴ θύειν αὐτοῖς.
"Despite all their efforts to tell the people about the true God, and even while they were actually saying these things, it was all they could do to just to stop them for a brief moment from the sacrifice they were making to them as [what they perceived to be] avatars of Jupiter and Mercury" (Translated from the verse and its surrounding context, Roman names of "gods" used for religion in the Roman Empire).

What I think I get is that:
  • 1) The verb used is καταπαῦσαι and not κωλύειν, so “stop” means, “make them not do it anymore”, rather than “prevent them from starting to do it”
    2) The τί ταῦτα ποιεῖτε of Acts 14:15 means that the sacrifice had gotten underway
I have two problems in understanding this:
  • 1) I still can't get my head around articular infinitves. Why is this in the genitive here? Is it purpose?
    2) What sort of fish are swimming in μόλις's kettle?Is it an adverb of intensification like a negative of λίαν "very" or an adverb of manner like δυσκόλως "with difficulty"? Could it be taking in its temporal adverbial sense here "only for a moment". I think it is perhaps both of time and manner, hence the wordy translation to express both senses.
A third queston is:
  • 3) Does this verb καταπαῦσαι usually refer more to an action in the sense of pause it, or in the sense of completely stop it happening? Are there a body of contemporary examples where it could plausibly mean "prevent [something] from ever starting"?
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
cwconrad
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Re: Acts 14:18 μόλις & καταπαῦσαι + gen.art.inf.

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:There are a few points of grammar in this verse that I need help with -
Acts 14:18 wrote:Καὶ ταῦτα λέγοντες, μόλις κατέπαυσαν τοὺς ὄχλους τοῦ μὴ θύειν αὐτοῖς.
"Despite all their efforts to tell the people about the true God, and even while they were actually saying these things, it was all they could do to just to stop them for a brief moment from the sacrifice they were making to them as [what they perceived to be] avatars of Jupiter and Mercury" (Translated from the verse and its surrounding context, Roman names of "gods" used for religion in the Roman Empire).

What I think I get is that:
  • 1) The verb used is καταπαῦσαι and not κωλύειν, so “stop” means, “make them not do it anymore”, rather than “prevent them from starting to do it”
    2) The τί ταῦτα ποιεῖτε of Acts 14:15 means that the sacrifice had gotten underway
I would agree with this. καταπαῦσαι: "call a halat to" or "bring to a halt"
Stephen Hughes wrote:I have two problems in understanding this:
  • 1) I still can't get my head around articular infinitves. Why is this in the genitive here? Is it purpose?
    2) What sort of fish are swimming in μόλις's kettle?Is it an adverb of intensification like a negative of λίαν "very" or an adverb of manner like δυσκόλως "with difficulty"? Could it be taking in its temporal adverbial sense here "only for a moment". I think it is perhaps both of time and manner, hence the wordy translation to express both senses.
(1) articular infinitives in the genitive: I think that the genitive originally depended upon ἕνεκα but became a standard construction equivalent to ἵνα + subjunctive or ὥστε + infinitive. I think it's also the case that all three of these constructions expanded their semantic range in Hellenistic Greek so as to express purpose, result, or intention of the subject of the clause in question: something like "so as to"

(2) my sense of μόλις is that it's an adverb expressing limitation upon the success of an effort. I think your paraphrase, "it was all they could do to ... " is right on target.

Louw & Nida have two entries for μόλις:
22.33 μόλιςb: pertaining to that which can be accomplished only with difficulty — ‘with difficulty.’ καὶ ταῦτα λέγοντες μόλις κατέπαυσαν τοὺς ὄχλους τοῦ μὴ θύειν αὐτοῖς ‘even with these words, they could only with difficulty keep the crowds from offering a sacrifice to them’ Ac 14:18. Because of the complications involved in rendering the expression ‘only with difficulty,’ it may be necessary to recast the translation of Ac 14:18 as ‘with these words they were able to keep the crowds from offering a sacrifice to them, but it was extremely difficult for them to accomplish this’ or ‘… but they had to try very hard to keep the crowds from doing so.’ For another interpretation of μόλις in Ac 14:18, see 78.41.

78.41 ὀλίγως; μόλιςa or μόγις: a degree which almost equals some point on a scale of extent, but not quite — ‘barely, just, scarcely, with difficulty, hardly.’9
ὀλίγως: τοὺς ὀλίγως ἀποφεύγοντας ‘those who are barely beginning to escape’ 2Pe 2:18. In a number of languages it may be difficult to render the degree ‘which falls just short of the precise extent.’ For example, in the case of 2Pe 2:18 an equivalent of τοὺς ὀλίγως ἀποφεύγοντας may be ‘those who were just starting to escape.’
μόλιςa or
μόγις: μόλις κατέπαυσαν τοὺς ὄχλους τοῦ μὴ θύειν αὐτοῖς ‘they could scarcely keep [p. 691] the crowds from offering a sacrifice to them’ Ac 14:18. For another interpretation of μόλις in Ac 14:18, see 22.33. μόγις ἀποχωρεῖ ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ ‘(the spirit) scarcely leaves him’ Lk 9:39.
Stephen Hughes wrote:A third queston is:
  • 3) Does this verb καταπαῦσαι usually refer more to an action in the sense of pause it, or in the sense of completely stop it happening? Are there a body of contemporary examples where it could plausibly mean "prevent [something] from ever starting"?
Evidently not. καταπῦσαι and καταπαῦσις appear secondarily to indicate coming to rest after labor or, as a causative, to bring something or someone to rest, but fundamentally the sense of καταπαῦσαι as a causative in the sense "put the kibosh on".or "halt in his/its tracks".
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

Re: Acts 14:18 μόλις & καταπαῦσαι + gen.art.inf.

Post by Stephen Hughes »

cwconrad wrote:(1) articular infinitives in the genitive: I think that the genitive originally depended upon ἕνεκα but became a standard construction equivalent to ἵνα + subjunctive or ὥστε + infinitive. I think it's also the case that all three of these constructions expanded their semantic range in Hellenistic Greek so as to express purpose, result, or intention of the subject of the clause in question: something like "so as to"
Is there rhyme or reason to choosing which one of those constructions could be used for a given set of circumstances? Let me think aloud for a moment...

In light of what Carl has said about καταπαῦσαι having a causative useage, I suspect now is that the genitive articular infinitive distances the "stopping" from the "sacrificing". That is to say Barnabas and Paul didn't stop disrupt the ceremony directly (by putting out the fire or breaking the knife), but indirectly by talking to the people, who then stopped. What about this thought, if Barnabas and Paul took a physical action to stop the ceremony then using "ἵνα + subjunctive or ὥστε + infinitive" would be more applicable. To understand our sentence by what it does not say, we could hypothetically construct, παρεκάλεσαν ὁ Παῦλος και Βαρναβᾶς τοὺς ὄχλους ἵνα μὴ διατελοῦσιν θύσοντες "Paul and Barnabas told the people that they didn't need to be doing what they were doing, and that there was no benefit to continuing with the sacrifice" (That translation is heavily weighted to the παρακαλεῖν). If the action that allowed something to happen was not immediately related then we could hypothesise something like, αἰτησάντων τὸν θεόν τοῦ Παύλου καὶ Βαρναβᾶ ἐγένετο Ὄμβρος/λαῖλαψ ὥστε μὴ θύσειν τοὺς ὄχλους "Paul and Barnabas asked God and then there was a storm so the crowd had to quit their sacrificing". (Neither of which two acts would have been so helpful for the people's salvation as what they did do).

... any of those disctinction in usage seem plausible?
Stephen Hughes wrote:3) Does this verb καταπαῦσαι usually refer more to an action in the sense of pause it, or in the sense of completely stop it happening? Are there a body of contemporary examples where it could plausibly mean "prevent [something] from ever starting"?
cwconrad wrote:Evidently not. καταπῦσαι and καταπαῦσις appear secondarily to indicate coming to rest after labor or, as a causative, to bring something or someone to rest, but fundamentally the sense of καταπαῦσαι as a causative in the sense "put the kibosh on".or "halt in his/its tracks".
That was my feeling too. ἀναπαύεσθαι (ἀνάπαυσις) would be temporary rest before getting up again or getting back to work, while . Gven that disinction, it seems that the "and I will give you rest" of the popular verse
Matthew 11:28 wrote:Δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς.
would mean "a little break", "let you be refreshed and work on", "give you a break so you can go back to work fresh", rather than stop you working and labouring outright.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
cwconrad
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Joined: May 5th, 2011, 5:52 pm
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Re: Acts 14:18 μόλις & καταπαῦσαι + gen.art.inf.

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:
cwconrad wrote:(1) articular infinitives in the genitive: I think that the genitive originally depended upon ἕνεκα but became a standard construction equivalent to ἵνα + subjunctive or ὥστε + infinitive. I think it's also the case that all three of these constructions expanded their semantic range in Hellenistic Greek so as to express purpose, result, or intention of the subject of the clause in question: something like "so as to"
Is there rhyme or reason to choosing which one of those constructions could be used for a given set of circumstances? Let me think aloud for a moment...

In light of what Carl has said about καταπαῦσαι having a causative useage, I suspect now is that the genitive articular infinitive distances the "stopping" from the "sacrificing". That is to say Barnabas and Paul didn't stop disrupt the ceremony directly (by putting out the fire or breaking the knife), but indirectly by talking to the people, who then stopped. What about this thought, if Barnabas and Paul took a physical action to stop the ceremony then using "ἵνα + subjunctive or ὥστε + infinitive" would be more applicable. To understand our sentence by what it does not say, we could hypothetically construct, παρεκάλεσαν ὁ Παῦλος και Βαρναβᾶς τοὺς ὄχλους ἵνα μὴ διατελοῦσιν θύσοντες "Paul and Barnabas told the people that they didn't need to be doing what they were doing, and that there was no benefit to continuing with the sacrifice" (That translation is heavily weighted to the παρακαλεῖν). If the action that allowed something to happen was not immediately related then we could hypothesise something like, αἰτησάντων τὸν θεόν τοῦ Παύλου καὶ Βαρναβᾶ ἐγένετο Ὄμβρος/λαῖλαψ ὥστε μὴ θύσειν τοὺς ὄχλους "Paul and Barnabas asked God and then there was a storm so the crowd had to quit their sacrificing". (Neither of which two acts would have been so helpful for the people's salvation as what they did do).
.For my part, I'm not convinced of this distinction between usage of these different constructions for purpose or result (ἵνα + subj., genitive articular infinitve, ὥστε + infinitive -- and we might add εἰς + articular infinitive. I think that earlier Greek distinguished the functions of these constructions while they tended to overlap or mesh in Hellenistic Greek. The genitive of the articular infinitive seems to be used in particular when the intention or result indicated is negative (τοὐ μὴ + inf.). Cf. BDF §§2032, 1408:
2032. genitive of the articular infinitive
a. The genitive of the articular infinitive is used to limit the meaning of substantives, adjectives, and verbs.
...
e. Purpose (cp. 1408), often a negative purpose: τοῦ μὴ τὰ δίκαια ποιεῖν in order not to do what was just D. 18. 107, ἐτειχίσθη Ἀταλάντη … τοῦ μὴ λῃστᾱ̀ς … κακουργεῖν τὴν Εὔβοιαν Atalante was fortified to prevent pirates from ravaging Euboea T. 2. 32. More common is the use with ὑπέρ (2032 g) or ἕνεκα.

1408. Allied to the genitive of cause is the genitive of purpose in τοῦ with the infinitive (esp. with μή, 2032 e), and in expressions where ἕνεκα is usually employed, as ἡ πᾶσʼ ἀπάτη συνεσκευάσθη τοῦ περὶ Φωκέᾱς ὀλέθρου the whole fraud was contrived for the purpose of ruining the Phocians D. 19. 76.
Although this negated articular infinitive of purpose appears elsewhere in the GNT, it is frequent in Lk & Acts (7x). perhaps owing to the narrative genre of these works.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

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