I'm less confident of what it would be in Koine, but in Classical Attic, I
believe one would use the middle imperative, and preferably, I think, the
aorist--to underscore efficacious self-restraint, for a command to a
person: "Stop!" PAUSAI (make yourself cease); this would, however, involve
an implicit participle, probably ELAUNWN: "Stop driving/pushing forward!"
"Halt"--in the sense of stop marching or stop going forward, might also be
expressed as "come to a standstill"--and that is hISTHMI. Again I'd think
aorist middle most appropriate: STHSAI: "Bring yourself to a standstill!"
The others verbs suggested have somewhat different force, I think. This, by
the way, is the sort of question that Louw-Nida is most helpful for--like a
Thesaurus that distinguishes between words have related meanings on a
spectrum within a semantic range. KWLUW is more "prevent" or "stop X from
doing Y;" KATALUW seems more "intervene (so as to interrupt a process);"
SIGAW really means "to hush, be still, be silent;" FRASSW has more the
sense of "bar, put up a barrier before (cork it!);" while DIAKOPTW (is this
a NT word at all?) is more "disrupt"--as in loosing tear gas on an unruly
mob.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/