[b-greek] Re:(Acts 13: 48) Did I miss something?

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 14 2000 - 12:33:32 EDT


At 3:27 PM +0000 9/14/00, Mark Wilson wrote:
>Carl wrote:
>
>>The text: ... EPISTEUSAN hOSOI HSAN TETAGMENOI EIS ZWHN AIWNION.
>>
>>I really don't think anything more is meant by this phrase than we mean by
>>saying "All those who were prepared for the test passed it with flying
>>colors." Nothing is said about who prepared the persons in question,
>>whether they had hit the midnight oil for several nights in a row or
>>someone had given them half a dozen help sessions to make sure that they
>>understood all the problems on which they would be examined. What the
>>phrasing says is nothing more than "those who were ready for the test
>>passed it" and of course it's also implied that "those who weren't ready
>>didn't pass it."
>
>
>In case list members missed the implications of this, may I simply say that
>these comments by Carl are not far from a stroke of genius.
>
>And I think the implications of this observation carry over to other often
>heated debates over the Middle versus Passive, for example, Romans 9:22:
>
>SKEUH ORGHS KATHRTISMENA EIS APWLEIAN
>
>
>I think many have wrongly concluded that the "theological" implications are
>"automatically determined" ONCE THE MIDDLE OR PASSIVE IS DETERMINED.

With all due respect to Mark, I would, for my own part,

(a) rather not get into ANY discussion at all (certainly not in THIS forum)
regarding THEOLOGICAL implications of other passages comparable to Acts
13:48, and

(b) rather not prejudge or generalize about "middle/passive" forms in
reference to the destiny of believers; if what is learned from one instance
can be made to apply to another, so be it, but I think there is
considerable danger in leaping to universal judgments from what one
believes to be the case in a single instance. Think for instance, of
Colwell's principle, and how judiciously it has to be applied to be at all
useful when examining instances of two substantives (supposedly) governed
by a single article. Generalizations (if I may generalize) have a way of
getting us into making judgments that sweep too far in a single stroke.

--

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

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