Re: POREUQEIS EKHRUXEN APEIQHSASIN in 1Peter3:19~20

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Jan 11 1998 - 08:24:30 EST


At 4:02 AM -0600 1/11/98, Steven Cox wrote:
> Are these three verbs meant to be sequential
>
>POREUQEIS went EKHRUXEN preached APEIQHSASIN disbelieved
>
> Or does the time sequence work like this
>
>APEIQHSASIN disobeyed POREUQEIS went EKHRUXEN preached
>
> :-?
>
>
>ZWOPIHQEIS quickened DE PNEUMATI by spirit EN in W which KAI and
>TOIS to the EN in FULAKH prison PNEUMASIV spirits
>POREUQEIS went EKHRUXEN preached
>APEIQHSASIN disbelieved POTE sometime OTE when
>APEXEDECETO waited H TOU QEOU of God MAKROQUMIA longsuffering
>EN in HMERAIS days NWE of Noah.

The primary linkage that seems to be missed here is that APEIQHSASIN is a
dative plural aorist participle in agreement with TOIS PNEUMASIN. It looks
like the sequence of the two verses is being understood in terms of
word-order alone rather than in terms of the syntactic links--but in any
complex, tightly-subordinated sequence, this is the easiest way to get lost
in a jumble of words.

Beginning where you begin with the last phrase of verse 18, I'd understand
the fundamental theme here as a visit of Christ in the spirit to preach to
the souls of those who died in the primeval flood, but whose spirits
remained 'imprisoned' in the underworld, thus:

" ... but made alive in spirit (ZWOPOIHQEIS DE PNEUMATI), by which (EN hWi)
he went (lit. 'having gone' aor. ptc. POREUQEIS) (and) preached (EKHRUXEN)
even to the imprisoned spirits (KAI TOIS EN FULAKHi PNEUMASIN = the souls
of the dead in the underworld), the ones having disbelieved once (TOIS
APEIQHSASIN POTE) when (hOTE) God's patience (hH TOU QEOU MAKROQUMIA) was
awaiting (them) APEXEDECETO in the days of Noah (EN hHMERAIS NWE) ...

In terms of sequential time, the disbelief indicated by the aor. ptc.
APEIQHSASIN must be earliest, then the resurrection of Jesus (ZWOPOIHQEIS),
and finally the spiritual journey to preach to those spirits (POREUQEIS
EKHRUXEN).

The linkage of POREUQEIS and EKHRUXEN one of the most common in narrative
Greek: preliminary action is stated in an aorist participle agreeing with
the subject of the chief narrative verb: "having gone, he preached"--where
the idiomatic preference of English for expression of this sequence is
sequential indicative verbs joined by conjunction: "he went and preached."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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