[B-Greek] Ephesians 1:22
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Mon Mar 8 06:13:58 EST 2010
The use of DIDWMI has some interesting parallels with the idiomatic usage of NaTaN in Hebrew. Whether or not in Eph 1:22 one could call it a semitism, some interesting parallels are given in BDAG and others can be plucked from the LXX.
2 Chron 25:16 Μὴ σύμβουλον τοῦ βασιλέως δέδωκά σε; MH SUMBOULON TOU BASILEWS DEDWKA SE? "[Would you shut up?] I haven't I made you [my] royal counselor have I?"
Num 14:4 καὶ εἶπαν ἕτερος τῷ ἑτέρῳ Δῶμεν ἀρχηγὸν καὶ ἀποστρέψωμεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον. KAI EIPAN hETEROS TWi ETERWi DWMEN ARCHGON KAI APOSTREYWMEN EIS AIGUPTON. "And they said each one to the other, "Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt."
A very nice example from Egyptian papyri is given in BDAG:
Papyrus Grecs de Lille (3rd century B.C.), in what looks to me like a legal notice sort of like a power of attourney, αὐτοῖς ἐδώκαμεν μεσίτην Δωρίωνα AUTOIS EKWDAMEN MESITHN DWRIWNA "We appointed Dorion as mediator for them."
DIDWMI is used for the action of designating, choosing, electing or appointing someone to an office or function. The Numbers 14:4 shows that no pronoun is necessary. Paul could have said, "KAI EDWKEN KEFALHN hUPER PANTA THi EKKLHSIAi" without AUTON, meaning "he chose/appointed a leader over everything for the church." Adding AUTON specifies what would otherwise be an indefinite reference to the recipient of the action. So, in this case I believe Elizabeth's analysis is more to the point. The grammatical patient is the office, the recipient is the office-holder. I know it is dangerous to introduce semantic parallels from other languages, but I have noticed this type of idiomatic double accusative in Spanish. While living in Argentina, I heard, "Este nene no me come la papa." (This kid won't eat me (acc.) the food (acc)= [meaning] The child will not eat for me.). Or, "No sé que pasa, el bebé no me come." (I don't know what's the matter, my baby won't eat me=[meaning] My baby won't eat for me."
Yancy Smith, PhD
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
yancy at wbtc.com
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On Mar 8, 2010, at 2:48 AM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>> I cannot recall any instance where the semantic role of Recipient or Beneficiary
>> is expressed with an accusative
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