[B-Greek] Acts 16,10

Martin Culy MCuly at briercrest.ca
Tue Mar 30 10:12:28 EST 2004


I would disagree with Dr. Conrad here. Yes, EUAGGELIZOMAI is a transitive
verb in Greek; but its direct object will be the thing preached rather than
the person(s) preached to.  In Acts, see 5:42; 8:4; 8:35; 10:36; 11:20; etc.
Acts 8:35 is a good example illustrating that the person preached to is
normally in the dative case (as the indirect object). Just as in English the
clause "I threw the ball to the boy" can be expressed as "I threw the boy
the ball" (with the indirect object moving into the direct object position),
so in Greek the person(s) preached to (indirect object) can "advance" into
the direct object role (and thus bear accusative case). As noted in
Culy/Parsons on Acts 8:25, this type of shifting of grammatical relation
(subject, object, direct object) is what takes place in passive
constructions as well, where the direct object (semantic patient) takes on
the role of grammatical subject.

Martin Culy
Associate Professor of New Testament
Briercrest Biblical Seminary


-----Original Message-----
From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu]
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2004 8:07 PM
To: Eddie Mishoe
Cc: B Greek
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Acts 16,10


At 5:44 PM -0800 3/29/04, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
>hWS DE TO hORAMA EIDEN, EUQEWS EZHTHSAMEN EXELQEIN EIS
>MAKEDONIAN, SUMBIBAZONTES hOTI PROSKEKLHTAI hHMAS hO
>QEOS EUAGGELISASQAI AUTOUS
>
>Since it doesn't seem to be emphasized here, can
>AUTOUS be understood as the intended direct object, as
>in "to evangelize THEM"....as opposed to a deeper
>level indirect object "to preach the gospel TO THEM?

EUAGGELIZOMAI is a transitive verb in Greek, i.e., it takes a direct object
of the person/s preached to; "proclaim the gospel" in English is an
intransitive phrase and must therefore be completed with a phrase
indicating the person/s preached to. It is not at all uncommon that a verb
expressing a particular notion is transitive in one language and
intransitive in another; that calls for an adjustment in translating, but
one must be very careful not to assume that what is normal in one's own
language is readily applicable to Greek. As you learn the verbs and read
the dictionary entries, you have to pay attention to the illustrative
sentences and see how the verb-forms work in the contexts of those
illustrations.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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