Re: outws, in Acts 17:33

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Jan 22 1999 - 10:02:18 EST


At 6:10 AM -0700 1/22/99, Robert W. Meyers wrote:
>One tr. reads, "So Paul departed from among them."
>
>I'm wondering if this has the sense, "this is the manner in which Paul
>left them,"

I'd make it, "So it was on these terms ..." or "Since that was the case
..." or "under these circumstances ... "

>or, which seems more natural (and which would seem to have a very striking
>logical impact on the question of Calvinism/Arminianism: the reason for my
>interest),
>"therefore, Paul left them" ? In other words, is the verse saying that God's
>response to the Athenian philosophers' reactions to His message was the
>natural and necessary logical result of those reactions?

Please let's not get into matters that transcend the direct meaning of the
text. I don't think Luke's phrasing allows us to draw out deeper
implications of the reasons why Paul left; you may draw your own inference,
but as I read the text, it simply says: "That is HOW Paul departed from
them." It doesn't say "That is WHY ... " and although that possibility
isn't excluded, I don't think we can say it is definitely implied, either.

>Does outws carry either possible meaning, and the question is therefore
>grammatically
>impossible to answer with certainty; or otherwise?

For my part, I don't think the matter can be settled so simply from just
hOUTWS.

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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