[B-Greek] Acts 20:24

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Jun 27 19:30:50 EDT 2008


On Jun 27, 2008, at 9:47 AM, Vasile Stancu wrote:

> How could this phrase in Acts 20:24 be translated as literally as  
> possible:
>
> ἀλλ’ οὐδενὸς λόγου ποιοῦμαι τὴν  
> ψυχὴν τιμίαν ἐμαυτῷ
> ALL' OUDENOS LOGOU POIOUMAI THN YUXHN TIMIAN EMAUTW
>
> How to explain the use of the Genetive LOGOU?

This strikes me as an extraordinarily pleonastic expression, probably  
meaning: "But I consider my life of no value ... " The "genitive of  
price or value" used predicatively with the middle POIEISQAI with or  
without an added PERI (POLLOU, PLEISTOU, OLIGOU, OUDENOS) is standard  
ancient Greek idiom for "deem of great, greatest, little, no value."  
But here we have that simple expression expanded: LOGOU added to  
OUDENOS: some have tried to understand this in the sense, "consider  
not worth mentioning", TIMIAN as predicate adjective with the object  
YUCHN, and then the reflexive dative EMAUTWi as if to reinforce the  
middle voice form. If one were to try to put it all together and  
render all these elements into English, it would come out, " ... but I  
deem my own life as worth not a word to myself ... " -- extremely  
awkward, it seems to me. I don't think that LOGOU adds anything, nor  
does TIMIAN, nor does EMAUTWi; I think the phrasing would have been  
simpler and clearer had the author written: ALL' OUDENOS POIOUMAI THN  
YUCHN ...

L&N: 31.2 λόγου ποιέομαι [LOGOU POIEOMAI]: (an idiom,  
literally ‘to make of reason’) to have an opinion based on some  
reason — ‘to consider, to regard, to hold a view, to be of the  
opinion.’ ἀλλ᾿ οὐδενὸς λόγου ποιοῦμαι  
τὴν ψυχὴν τιμίαν ἐμαυτῷ [ALL' OUDENOS LOGOU  
POIOUMAI THN YUXHN TIMIAN EMAUTWi] ‘but I regard my life to be worth  
nothing to me’ Ac 20:24.1

About as helpful is the note in NET:
'Or “I do not consider my life worth a single word.” According to  
BDAG 599 s.v. λόγος  1.a.α, “In the textually uncertain pass.  
Ac 20:24 the text as it stands in N., οὐδενὸς λόγου  
[OUDENOS LOGOU] (v.l. λόγον [LOGON]) ποιοῦμαι τὴν  
ψυχὴν τιμίαν [POIOUMAI THN YUXHN TIMIAN], may well mean: I  
do not consider my life worth a single word (cp. λόγου  
ἄξιον [ἄξιος 1a] and our ‘worth mention’).”

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






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