[B-Greek] Acts 1:2

rhutchin at aol.com rhutchin at aol.com
Tue Dec 9 10:42:30 EST 2008


 I think the commentator in question saw Jesus communicating directly with the apostles prior to His ascension making it difficult to understand what Luke meant if his intent was to describe the manner (DIA PNEUMATOS hAGIOU) in which Jesus communicated commandments, or specifically, the great commission, to the apostles.? It seems much easier to explain how Jesus had chosen the apostles DIA PNEUMATOS hAGIOU as He had spent the night previous to choosing the apostles in prayer (Lk 6:12) purportedly to seek help of God (and thereby, the Holy Spirit).

I liked the exegetical argument that he made.? However, he did not explain how, or why, the text could be construed to fit that argument and I am wary of discounting the opinions of commentators who claim 50 years reading and teaching Greek just because it doesn't make sense to me.? I asked the question to discover if there were some sense in which the reader might understand it in that way. Apparently, there is not.

Roger Hutchinson
?

Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:30:51 -0500
From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Acts 1:2
To: timothy mcmahon <targum at msn.com>



On Dec 8, 2008, at 12:27 AM, timothy mcmahon wrote:

>
> Wouldn't the position of DIA PNEUMATOS hAGIOU preclude it from being  
> construed as adverbial to EXELEXATO? Wouldn't it need to be within  
> the relative clause to be adverbial to the verb in that relative  
> clause? Or are there examples in the GNT where in syntax parallel to  
> this verse a prep phrase could modify a verb within a relative clause?

I would say so, but evidently Roger Hutchinson, who posted the  
question originally, found one commentator who wanted to understand  
the phrase with hOUS ELEXATO. I think that there may be (rare)  
instances where a very emphatic element is fronted ahead of its  
clause, but it would seem very odd to me here.


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







 



More information about the B-Greek mailing list