Stirling Bartholomew wrote:timothy_p_mcmahon wrote:How could αυτους refer back to feminine σαλπιγγας? Another Revelation solecism?
Yes, it would be a syntax error. Not a rare event in Apoc. of John. But perhaps we shouldn't assume errors when there are other options. Right?
Syntax errors in the Book of Revelations is sometimes thrown about as a by-word or a panacea for dealing with difficulties. Before we can draw an inference about a possible
syntax error, let's consider the syntax...
To go with what you and the NRSV are suggesting that the αὐτούς might also be on the "wrong" side of the ἵνα? Then we would have to deal with two grammatical errors: It is masculine not faiminine and it's on the wrong side of ἵνα - Most unlikely. To do what TPMc suggests, the verse might read like
Revelations 8:6 (modified so the pronoun refers to σάλπιγγας) wrote:Καὶ οἱ ἑπτὰ ἄγγελοι οἱ ἔχοντες τὰς ἑπτὰ σάλπιγγας ἡτοίμασαν ἵνα σαλπίσωσιν αὐτάς
Logically, it would be possible to have the pronoun repeated after ἡτοίμασαν as
Revelations 8:6 (modified so the pronoun refers to σάλπιγγας and two αὐτάς are used) wrote:Καὶ οἱ ἑπτὰ ἄγγελοι οἱ ἔχοντες τὰς ἑπτὰ σάλπιγγας ἡτοίμασαν αὐτὰς ἵνα σαλπίσωσιν αὐτάς
But that would not be the Greek idiom.
To see why we should omit the first αὐτάς not the second (which may or may not seem like good English) we could look at the following verse.
Mark 14:12 wrote:Ποῦ θέλεις ἀπελθόντες ἑτοιμάσωμεν ἵνα φάγῃς τὸ Πάσχα;
which an English speaker would possibly have translated into Greek as
Mark 14:12 (adapted for an English speakers way of thinking - perhaps as the NRSV committee did by changing the focus of the sentence during translation) wrote:Ποῦ θέλεις ἀπελθόντες ἑτοιμάσωμεν τὸ Πάσχα ἵνα φάγῃς αὐτό;
A way that somebody might have reached that conclusion might be that they would say that the "normal" construction for ἑτοιμάσαι is;
- ἑτοιμάσαι + acc (of thing prepared) + dat (of for whom it is prepared)
and the ἵνα clause is
just added onto the end.
But actually, the basic construction when ἑτοιμάσαι has an object and what is made ready to be done is specified is;
- ἑτοιμάσαι + ἵνα + subjunctive + object
That is to say - in answer to TPMc's question and the NRSV translation comittee's choice - that αὐτούς would
not refer back to σαλπίνγας on structural grounds.
In the case of
Luke 22:8 wrote:Πορευθέντες ἑτοιμάσατε ἡμῖν τὸ Πάσχα, ἵνα φάγωμεν.
the dative (of for whom it is prepared) is included. If we wanted to make the pronoun we have apply to the σάλπιγγας, and we wanted to spell out the dative (of for whom they are prepared), then our verse would become
Revelations 8:6 (modified so the pronoun refers to σάλπιγγας and dative pronoun ἑαυτοῖς / αὐτοῖς is spelt out) wrote:Καὶ οἱ ἑπτὰ ἄγγελοι οἱ ἔχοντες τὰς ἑπτὰ σάλπιγγας ἡτοίμασαν αὐτὰς ἑαυτοῖς / αὐτοῖς ἵνα σαλπίσωσιν
[Ι'm sorry, I don't know the language well enough to predict whether ἑαυτοῖς or αὐτοῖς would be used, but I'm 90% sure it would be ἑαυτοῖς in the better Greek of the time, and possible in the not-so-better Greek of the time - but of course I would not be surprised at either of them turning up wherever.]
To codify that, the construction for ἑτοιμάσαι when there is an accusative (of the thing prepared) and a dative (of for whom it is prepared) and what is made ready to be done is specified is;
- ἑτοιμάσαι + acc (of thing prepared) + dat (of for whom it is prepared) + ἵνα + subjunctive
You can make your own rule, I'm sure for the constuction we see in;
Matthew 26:17 (RP) wrote:Ποῦ θέλεις ἑτοιμάσομέν σοι φαγεῖν τὸ Πάσχα;
[Hint: see the last line of this post if you can't see the pattern.]
Now that we have seen that it is not
something that is being prepared, that is to say that the construction suggests that it is not an external object that they are actively (verbal sense) making ready, the only thing left for it to refer to is reflexively to the angels themselves.
Having said all that, given that the dative was dropping out of the language, AND given the possibility for grammatical error in the Book of Revelations, it could be possible that the accusative is here used for dative. That is unlikely because ἑτοιμάσαι is rare in the active voice with a dative without an accusative (in the New Testament at least)[except Luke 9:52 where ξενίαν may have been understood as a collocation]. But if it was accusative for dative (which I don't think it is) then αὐτούς could be translated as "for themselves", but that doesn't even fit the sense.
There is the example of this dative without the accusative in
Mark 14:15 wrote:ἐκεῖ ἑτοιμάσατε ἡμῖν.
but (a) the "τὸ Πάσχα." is understood from context, and is explicated in the following verse;
Mark 14:16 wrote:καὶ ἡτοίμασαν τὸ Πάσχα.
where the narrative leaves out the (possible) αὐτοις that we would expect in English. (cf. Luke 22:9, 12, 13 if you want a further example)
---------
For the similar construction, cf.
Matthew 26:17 wrote:Ποῦ θέλεις ἑτοιμάσομέν σοι φαγεῖν τὸ Πάσχα;
The general word for place is τόπος, while the word ταμεῖον is a "secret (locked) room", and ἀνάγαιον is an "upstairs room" (ξενία as just mentioned is a "guest's lodgings"). We can see in this construction that the dative also doesn't migrate to the other side of the second verb in the same way that it didn't with the ἵνα constructions.