[b-greek] Re: EN PNEUMATI in Acts 1:5 locative or instrumental case?

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 25 2000 - 08:39:41 EDT


At 4:34 AM -0400 10/25/00, Georgy Aristov wrote:
>Acts 1:5 ... EBAPTISEN hUDATI ... EN PNEUMATI BAPTISQHSESQE AGIW
>
>en pneumati ... Is it the locative case (= in the Spirit) or the
>instrumental case (= with the Spirit)? Robertson insists on the locative
>usage, but three different Russian translations I looked in do agree in
>interpretation of "en pneumati" as the instrumental. I wonder if the
>meaning of the verb "baptizw" (to dip) is compatible with the instrumental
>usage of corresponding nouns ("water" or "Spirit") at all?

I think we've discussed this question several times on B-Greek; I'll vote
against "mega-scholar" Robertson and argue on behalf of Instrumental. In
response to another current question I remarked that, so far as the dative
is concerned, I still teach, very simplistically, just three categories of
dative: (1) True dative of personal interest/reference (most commonly
represented by the English prepositions "to" or "for"); (2) Instrumental
(most commonly represented by the English preposition "with"--whether for
the common sociative use or the no less common sense of 'means'; (3)
Locative of temporal-spatial position (most commonly represented by English
prepositions "in," "on," or "at." While I grant that it is possible to
subdivide (ad infinitum or ad nauseam, whichever comes first) each into
subcategories, but more often than not I have found that these three chief
categories work pretty well for the dative and that the most commonly
referred-to subcategories are pretty easily assigned to one or another of
these three.

--

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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