συνεχύθη in Acts 2.6
Posted: June 1st, 2020, 8:17 am
Hi, I hope everybody had a spirit-filled Pentecost Sunday. I bet you can't guess what the sermon was about in my church.
I have a proposal for the exegesis of Acts 2.6:
γενομένης δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος καὶ συνεχύθη ὅτι ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν
I would like to ask for your feedback on whether you find my exegesis convincing, and whether it is original. I know that I thought of this myself, so it is original in that sense, but maybe 300 other people have already thought of it as well. I haven't found any translations that are based on this exegesis, though.
The basic idea is that συνεχύθη might be understood in this passage in the sense of the people in the crowd mixing together, as opposed to being "mixed up" in their thinking, that is, perplexed, confused, puzzled, or whatever your favorite Englishization of this might be.
As you might guess, I'm going to play this passage off against the story of the πύργον τῆς συγχύσεως in Genesis 11. It is commonly noted that the two stories are related. I believe that it is also commonly noted that the single word συνεχύθη in Acts 2.6 forms a verbal link to the three occurrences in Genesis 11:7-9:
δεῦτε καὶ καταβάντες συγχέωμεν ἐκεῗ αὐτῶν τὴν γλῶσσαν ἵνα μὴ ἀκούσωσιν ἕκαστος τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ πλησίον
καὶ διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ἐκεῗθεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐπαύσαντο οἰκοδομοῦντες τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸν πύργον
διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῆς Σύγχυσις ὅτι ἐκεῗ συνέχεεν κύριος τὰ χείλη πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐκεῗθεν διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς
I get three occurrences by counting the verb form and the noun as the same word. What I really mean is that they have the same root of course, so it would be technically more accurate to say that there are three occurrences of words with that common root. Part of my point is that the repetition gives the word more prominence, and especially the fact that the name of the place is called Σύγχυσις rather than Babel as in the Hebrew. So this suggests that Luke uses the word συνεχύθη "with malice aforethought" as they say.
I think that all of this is common knowledge, as well as the notion that Acts 2 represents a reversal of the Genesis 11 mixing-up of the languages followed by the dispersion of the people. So in Genesis 11 the order of these events is represented by the order of the verb phrases συγχέωμεν ἐκεῗ αὐτῶν τὴν γλῶσσαν followed by διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ἐκεῗθεν. In Acts the implied order of events is ἡμεῖς ἀκούομεν ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἡμῶν ἐν ᾗ ἐγεννήθημεν followed by συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος followed by συνεχύθη τὸ πλῆθος. I say this is the implied order of events because it is different from the order in which the verbs occur in the telling of the story. So there is a parallel construction with the implied order of events in reverse. In Genesis, the languages are mixed up followed by the people being dispersed; in Acts it is the mix-up of languages being overcome by the work of the Holy Spirit followed by the people coming together and mixing together.
The mixing of the Jews who have come ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν is, in this light, highly significant as it represents a foreshadowing of all the Gentiles coming together by being united in one spirit.
So my conclusion is that the phrase συνεχύθη τὸ πλῆθος should be translated with the sense of the multitude of people of different tongues mixing together.
I have a proposal for the exegesis of Acts 2.6:
γενομένης δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος καὶ συνεχύθη ὅτι ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν
I would like to ask for your feedback on whether you find my exegesis convincing, and whether it is original. I know that I thought of this myself, so it is original in that sense, but maybe 300 other people have already thought of it as well. I haven't found any translations that are based on this exegesis, though.
The basic idea is that συνεχύθη might be understood in this passage in the sense of the people in the crowd mixing together, as opposed to being "mixed up" in their thinking, that is, perplexed, confused, puzzled, or whatever your favorite Englishization of this might be.
As you might guess, I'm going to play this passage off against the story of the πύργον τῆς συγχύσεως in Genesis 11. It is commonly noted that the two stories are related. I believe that it is also commonly noted that the single word συνεχύθη in Acts 2.6 forms a verbal link to the three occurrences in Genesis 11:7-9:
δεῦτε καὶ καταβάντες συγχέωμεν ἐκεῗ αὐτῶν τὴν γλῶσσαν ἵνα μὴ ἀκούσωσιν ἕκαστος τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ πλησίον
καὶ διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ἐκεῗθεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐπαύσαντο οἰκοδομοῦντες τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸν πύργον
διὰ τοῦτο ἐκλήθη τὸ ὄνομα αὐτῆς Σύγχυσις ὅτι ἐκεῗ συνέχεεν κύριος τὰ χείλη πάσης τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐκεῗθεν διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς
I get three occurrences by counting the verb form and the noun as the same word. What I really mean is that they have the same root of course, so it would be technically more accurate to say that there are three occurrences of words with that common root. Part of my point is that the repetition gives the word more prominence, and especially the fact that the name of the place is called Σύγχυσις rather than Babel as in the Hebrew. So this suggests that Luke uses the word συνεχύθη "with malice aforethought" as they say.
I think that all of this is common knowledge, as well as the notion that Acts 2 represents a reversal of the Genesis 11 mixing-up of the languages followed by the dispersion of the people. So in Genesis 11 the order of these events is represented by the order of the verb phrases συγχέωμεν ἐκεῗ αὐτῶν τὴν γλῶσσαν followed by διέσπειρεν αὐτοὺς κύριος ἐκεῗθεν. In Acts the implied order of events is ἡμεῖς ἀκούομεν ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἡμῶν ἐν ᾗ ἐγεννήθημεν followed by συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος followed by συνεχύθη τὸ πλῆθος. I say this is the implied order of events because it is different from the order in which the verbs occur in the telling of the story. So there is a parallel construction with the implied order of events in reverse. In Genesis, the languages are mixed up followed by the people being dispersed; in Acts it is the mix-up of languages being overcome by the work of the Holy Spirit followed by the people coming together and mixing together.
The mixing of the Jews who have come ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν is, in this light, highly significant as it represents a foreshadowing of all the Gentiles coming together by being united in one spirit.
So my conclusion is that the phrase συνεχύθη τὸ πλῆθος should be translated with the sense of the multitude of people of different tongues mixing together.