Lk 1:64 PARACRHMA

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Sep 10 08:06:29 EDT 2002


I hereby submit the eleventh of the questions concerned with distinctive
readings of Codex Bezae in the text of Luke's gospel.

Lk 1:63-4
NA27/USB4: KAI AITHSAS PINAKIDION EGRAYEN LEGWN: IWANNHS ESTIN ONOMA AUTOU.
KAI EQAUMASAN PANTES. (64) ANEWiCQH DE TO STOMA AUTOU PARACRHMA KAI hH
GLWSSA AUTOU, KAI ELALEI EULOGWN TON QEON ;
D05: ... EGRAYEN IWANHS ESTIN TO ONOMA AUTOU KAI PARACRHMA ELUQH H GLWSSA
AUTOU KAI EQAUMASAN PANTES

PARACRHMA indicates the simultaneity of two events:

(1) according to D05, at the instant at which Zacharias was writing his
son's name he recovered his speech and this coincidence is what amazed the
people who observed it;

but (2) according to the critical text, the simultaneous occurrences are
the unbinding of his mouth and tongue and his speaking in praise of God.

Have I rightly described the functioning of PARACRHMA in these considerably
variant formulations?

I suppose it might be possible to read the critical text as indicating that
the simultaneous events indicated by PARACRHMA are the unbinding of his
mouth and of his tongue. But it seems to me rather that we should
understand TO STOMA AUTOU and hH GLWSSA AUTOU as shared subjects of of
ANEWiCQH (there is, of course, no violation of the concords here since hH
GLWSSA AUTOU is a subject appended to the original subject-predicate
sequence) and that the function of PARACRHMA here is to indicate that
Zacharias spoke out in praise of God AS SOON AS he was able to speak.

I haven't transcribed here the larger context, but what follows in both
Codex Bezae and in the critical text is an indication of awe in the
neighborhood and the hill country of Judea as word spread of this.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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