Βιαστή

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Philip Arend
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Joined: October 14th, 2018, 1:15 am

Βιαστή

Post by Philip Arend »

From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers comes an odd rephrasing of Matthew 11:12

Βιαστή γάρ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρἀνων, καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν.

The kingdom of the heavens is violent/forceful??? Doesn't make sense to me.

I found a papyrus with Βιαστή as well:

[16]καθὼ καὶ ουʼ[κ] ἐξέσται1669 ἡμῖ̣ν̣ ὁποτ[έρῳ τὰ ἐν]
[17]ταῖς ἐγγεγραμμέναις1670 συνθήκα̣ι̣[ς παραβῆναι]
[18]βιαστή· ἂν δὲ̣ ὁπότερος τ̣ὸ̣[ν] ἕτερον̣ [ἀδικῇ πε-]
[19]ρὶ τούτου ἐκτείσει1671 ὁ παραβὰς τ̣ῷ ἐμμέ̣[νοντι ὑπὲρ]

P.Col.: Columbia Papyri, Duke Data Bank of Documentary Papyri (Perseus Digital Library, n.d.).

It seems to be written as a protest against some kind of transgression of a written contract but I'm not quite understanding what Βιαστή means here either. Does anyone have some light to shed?
Stirling Bartholomew
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Joined: August 9th, 2012, 4:19 pm

Re: Βιαστή

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

Philip Arend wrote: December 30th, 2018, 10:22 am From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers comes an odd rephrasing of Matthew 11:12
Βιαστή γάρ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρἀνων, καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν.

The kingdom of the heavens is "subject to violence" (Lampe) ...

See Flannery O'Connor.
C. Stirling Bartholomew
Philip Arend
Posts: 61
Joined: October 14th, 2018, 1:15 am

Re: Βιαστή

Post by Philip Arend »

Thanks for writing Stirling. I could not find this exact form in the Lampe that I consulted, but Stephanos did have it in the following entry:

Theophilus Protosp. 3, 11, p. 843 Η μὲν γάρ ἐστιν αβιἀστος (αναπνοὴ), ή δὲ βιαστή.
For on the one hand she/it is effortless? Powerless?, on the other forceful (or something like that)

Any idea what form this is here?
Barry Hofstetter
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Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Βιαστή

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Philip Arend wrote: January 1st, 2019, 10:36 am Thanks for writing Stirling. I could not find this exact form in the Lampe that I consulted, but Stephanos did have it in the following entry:

Theophilus Protosp. 3, 11, p. 843 Η μὲν γάρ ἐστιν αβιἀστος (αναπνοὴ), ή δὲ βιαστή.
For on the one hand she/it is effortless? Powerless?, on the other forceful (or something like that)

Any idea what form this is here?
βιαστή is feminine nominative singular. The lexical form would βιαστός. The morpheme -τος usually indicates a passive idea, "acted upon with force" or something like that, precise English gloss to be decided by context.

This is different from βιαστής, -της being the agentive ending.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
Stirling Bartholomew
Posts: 1141
Joined: August 9th, 2012, 4:19 pm

Re: Βιαστή

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

Philip Arend wrote: January 1st, 2019, 10:36 am Thanks for writing Stirling. I could not find this exact form in the Lampe ...
Philip,

I was working on Scholia in Apocalypsin P. Tzamalikos when you posted your question. I just pasted βιαστή into the TLG-Abridged search window and clicked on Lampe. No fuss and bother with the hard copy.
C. Stirling Bartholomew
Philip Arend
Posts: 61
Joined: October 14th, 2018, 1:15 am

Re: Βιαστή

Post by Philip Arend »

Thanks for these helpful replies. I look up -τος This helped to explain very much. So I'm guessing the word can be middle or passive just as verb βιἀζεται.
That really opened my eye to this form. btw I googled the form and wiktionary page below came up. I hope it is accurate. Seems to be and it references Smythe, though the Perseus link did not go to right section.

Stirling thanks also for the TLG pointer. I went there and found that the Lampe reference came back with the English gloss. I could not see a way to directly access the Lampe entries themselves. Still, was nice to know about this possibility in TLG.


Suffix
-• (-tos) m, f (neuter -τον); second declension

Creates verbal adjectives of possibility, either active or passive (accented on the ultima, -τός) quotations ▲
δύναμαι > δυνατός

can > able (active), doable (passive)
διαλῡ́ω > διαλυτός
dissolve > dissoluble

Creates perfective passive verbal adjectives (usually accented recessively) quotations ▲
διαλῡ́ω > διάλυτος
dissolve > dissolved

Forms adjectives from nouns (accented recessively) quotations ▲
δάκρυ > ἀ-δάκρυτος
tear > tearless
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