Acts 19.18 ἤρχοντο

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Louis L Sorenson
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Acts 19.18 ἤρχοντο

Post by Louis L Sorenson »

Acts 19.18 Πολλοί τε τῶν πεπιστευκότων ἤρχοντο ἐξομολογούμενοι καὶ ἀναγγέλλοντες τὰς πράξεις αὐτῶν. 19 ἱκανοὶ δὲ τῶν τὰ περίεργα πραξάντων συνενέγκαντες τὰς βίβλους κατέκαιον ἐνώπιον πάντων, καὶ συνεψήφισαν τὰς τιμὰς αὐτῶν καὶ εὗρον ἀργυρίου μυριάδας πέντε. 20 Οὕτως κατὰ κράτος τοῦ κυρίου ὁ λόγος ηὔξανεν καὶ ἴσχυεν.

Nestle, E., Nestle, E., Aland, B., Aland, K., Karavidopoulos, J., Martini, C. M., & Metzger, B. M. (1993). The Greek New Testament (27th ed.) (380). Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
I'm wondering about ἤρχοντο in this verse. Is it from ἔρχομαι or ἄρχομαι? My Logos software tags it as from ἔρχομαι 'they came ...' but could not it also be 'they began confessing....'? Usually ἄρχομαι takes a complementary infinitive, but the participle is also a complement sometimes
LSJ: ἄρχω·

5. of actions, σέο δʼ ἕξεται ὅττι κεν ἄρχῃ Il.9.102: freq. c. inf., τοῖσιν δʼ ἦρχʼ ἀγορεύειν among them, Il.1.571, etc.; ἦρχε ́νέεσθαι, ἦρχʼ ἴμεν, 2.84, 13.329; ἄρχετε νῦν νέκυας φορέειν Od.22.437, etc.; ὑφαίνειν ἤρχετο μῆτιν Il.7.324; ἤρξαντο οἰκοδομεῖν Th.1.107; ἡ νόσος ἤρξατο γενέσθαι Id.2.47: c. part., of continued action or condition, ἦρχον χαλεπαίνων Il.2.378; ἢν ἄρξη ἀδικέων Hdt.4.119; ἡ ψυχὴ ἄρχεται ἀπολείπουσα X.Cyr.8.7.26; πόθεν ἂν ὀρθῶς ἀρξαίμεθα ἐπαινοῦντες; Pl.Mx.237a, cf. Pl.Tht.187a (but ἄ. ἐπαινεῖν Id.Pl.Phdr.241e); ἄρξομαι διδάσκων X.Cyr.8.8.2 (but ἤρξω μανθάνειν Id.Mem.3.5.22).

Liddell, H. G., Scott, R., Jones, H. S., & McKenzie, R. (1996). A Greek-English lexicon (254). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Any thoughts?
Stephen Hughes
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The only instance ἤρχ- w.o. adv. loc.

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Two observations:
  • Acts 19:18 seems to be the only place where one of the "ambiguous" forms (ἤρχετο, ἤρχου, ἤρχοντο) is not used with an adverbial of place.
  • In the New Testament - leaving aside this one instance for a moment - ἤρχετο, ἤρχου, ἤρχοντο all always mean "come", and ἤρξατο, ἤρξαντο (c. inf.) both always mean "begin".They seem to form an unambiguous pair.
Two thoughts:
  • συμφέρω in the next verse suggests movement.
  • If people publicly confess certain of the sins they had committed (as the verb ἐξομολογούμενοι suggests), that would entail them coming to church.
Last edited by Stephen Hughes on March 2nd, 2014, 8:17 am, edited 2 times in total.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
cwconrad
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Re: The only instance ἤρχ- w.o. adv. loc.

Post by cwconrad »

Stephen Hughes wrote:Two observations:
  • Acts 19:18 seems to be the only place where one of the "ambiguous" forms (ἤρχετο, ἤρχου, ἤρχοντο) is not used with an adverbial of place.
  • In the New Testament - leaving aside this one instance for a moment - ἤρχετο, ἤρχου, ἤρχοντο all always mean "come", and ἤρξατο, ἤρξαντο (c. inf.) both always mean "begin".They seem to form an unambiguous pair.
And to underscore that, wouldn't an imperfect for ἄρχομαι here be odd? "They kept on beginning"? Well, maybe not: we've known beginners in Greek like that.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Stephen Hughes
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Could ἤρχοντο be inceptive?

Post by Stephen Hughes »

cwconrad wrote:And to underscore that, wouldn't an imperfect for ἄρχομαι here be odd? "They kept on beginning"? Well, maybe not: we've known beginners in Greek like that.
Or imagine an inceptive imperfect of ἄρχομαι, "They began to start...". If it is going to be inceptive it would be of ἔρχομαι, "They began to come..."
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Louis L Sorenson
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Re: Acts 19.18 ἤρχοντο

Post by Louis L Sorenson »

Stephen wrote
συμφέρω in the next verse suggests movement.
.

Yes, that is what I thought. Movement is surely involved because they all brought their magical books to the same pile to burn.
But I also think 'ἦλθον ὀμολογούμενοι' is odd. It's missing something (εἰς, πρός, κτλ. The default usage is like Mk 1.45 ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἤρχοντο πρὸς αὐτόν.). Perhaps the problem (where I'm led astray) is the English use where 'began' has to be a modal auxiliary verb.

Carl wrote:
And to underscore that, wouldn't an imperfect for ἄρχομαι here be odd? "They kept on beginning"?
But cf. Thucydides 1.25.4
(ᾗ
καὶ μᾶλλον ἐξηρτύοντο τὸ ναυτικὸν καὶ ἦσαν οὐκ ἀδύνατοι·
τριήρεις γὰρ εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν ὑπῆρχον αὐτοῖς ὅτε ἤρχοντο
πολεμεῖν),
-- would not we read that as 'when they began to fight'? or is it 'when they came to the fight'?

But then again, Luke likes to be ambiguous where he can. There are no textual variants here - so I guess I would go with the traditional rendering. For those who are trying to recreate a spoken Koine, this may be an example to avoid or rule to follow. i.e. use the aorist of ἄρχομαι with the infinitive, not the imperfect.
Stephen Hughes
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Aorist ἦλθεν c. inf. too

Post by Stephen Hughes »

Louis L Sorenson wrote:use the aorist of ἄρχομαι with the infinitive, not the imperfect.
The aorist ἦλθεν is also used with the infinitive rather than using its imperfect with the infinitive. Is this a general staring-us-in-the-face rule that I've overlooked.
Louis L Sorenson wrote:But I also think 'ἦλθον ὀμολογούμενοι' is odd. It's missing something
On the faint chance that you find the participle with ἦλθον odd, cf.
Luke 18:3 wrote:χήρα δὲ ἦν ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐκείνῃ, καὶ ἤρχετο πρὸς αὐτόν, λέγουσα, Ἐκδίκησόν με ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀντιδίκου μου.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
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cwconrad
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Re: Acts 19.18 ἤρχοντο

Post by cwconrad »

Louis L Sorenson wrote:Stephen wrote
συμφέρω in the next verse suggests movement.
.

Yes, that is what I thought. Movement is surely involved because they all brought their magical books to the same pile to burn.
But I also think 'ἦλθον ὀμολογούμενοι' is odd. It's missing something (εἰς, πρός, κτλ. The default usage is like Mk 1.45 ἐξῆλθον ἐκ τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἤρχοντο πρὸς αὐτόν.). Perhaps the problem (where I'm led astray) is the English use where 'began' has to be a modal auxiliary verb.

Carl wrote:
And to underscore that, wouldn't an imperfect for ἄρχομαι here be odd? "They kept on beginning"?
But cf. Thucydides 1.25.4
(ᾗ
καὶ μᾶλλον ἐξηρτύοντο τὸ ναυτικὸν καὶ ἦσαν οὐκ ἀδύνατοι·
τριήρεις γὰρ εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατὸν ὑπῆρχον αὐτοῖς ὅτε ἤρχοντο
πολεμεῖν),
-- would not we read that as 'when they began to fight'? or is it 'when they came to the fight'?

But then again, Luke likes to be ambiguous where he can. There are no textual variants here - so I guess I would go with the traditional rendering. For those who are trying to recreate a spoken Koine, this may be an example to avoid or rule to follow. i.e. use the aorist of ἄρχομαι with the infinitive, not the imperfect.
(1) Thucydides' account of the buildup to the Peloponnesian War is vivid in its description of the ongoing process, and the imperfects contribute to that: "And they kept outfitting the fleet all the more (and they were not wanting in military might: in fact, they had a hundred and twenty triremes at the time when they were just starting hostilities."

(2) Luke's description of this process is vivid too, although I don't personally think it's ambiguous. I'm reminded of vivid literary descriptions of Savonarola's great conflagration of books in Florence's Piazza della Signoria. Awesome and frightening, as is the course of events in Ukraine right now.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
Iver Larsen
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Re: Aorist ἦλθεν c. inf. too

Post by Iver Larsen »

Stephen Hughes wrote:
Luke 18:3: χήρα δὲ ἦν ἐν τῇ πόλει ἐκείνῃ, καὶ ἤρχετο πρὸς αὐτόν, λέγουσα, Ἐκδίκησόν με ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀντιδίκου μου.
This is a good parallel to Acts 19:18. In both cases the imperative form indicates an imperfective aspect which in these contexts refers to an iterative action. In Luke 18:3 the same person did the same action repeatedly, and this is captured in most translations, e.g. NASB " she kept coming to him, saying" or NLT: "A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying".
In Acts 19:18 we have a plural subject so it seems likely that people arrived one after another to do the same action. Both the coming (ἤρχοντο) and the burning of the books (κατέκαιον) describe actions repeated by different people. NASB has tried to capture this by saying: "Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices." However, I think the word "kept" works best if it is one person repeating the same action. When the subject is plural, it is difficult to express the iterativeness in English, so most translations leave it implicit to be understood from context. These people probably did not come as a unified group at the same time, but individually, one after the other. I suppose one might express the iterativeness by saying "they came one by one" or "one after the other".
Curiously, NASB says for the burning in the next verse: "And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them.." I think the iterative sense is more likely than an inceptive sense. (Inceptive is usually for the aorist.) Various people came one by one and added their books to the burning pile. The word begin suggests to me that they tried to retrieve the books when they were halfway burned, surely not the intended meaning.
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