Re: Acts 2:14 (GNT) *Staqeis* de o Petros

James H. Vellenga (jhv0@viewlogic.com)
Tue, 5 Nov 96 08:48:40 EST

> From: Jonathan Robie <jwrobie@mindspring.com>
>
> STAQEIS is an aorist passive participle of ISTHMI, to stand. What is the
> force of this participle? I notice that translations differ on this
> significantly:
>
> Acts 2:14 (GNT) Staqeis de o Petros sun tois endeka ephren thn fwnhn autou
> kai apefqegxato autois: andres Ioudaioi kai oi katoikountes Ierousalhm
> pantes, touto umin gnwston estw kai enwtisasqe ta rhmata mou.
>
> Acts 2:14 (NASU) But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his
> voice and declared to them: "Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem,
> let this be known to you and give heed to my words.
>
> c.f. NIV "then Peter stood up", NKJV "standing up with the eleven", NRSV
> "standing with the eleven", NASB "taking his stand with the eleven", WEY
> "together with the eleven", Young's "having stood up with the eleven", ICB
> "but Peter stood up with the 11 apostles".
>
In my opinion, the aorist of ISTHMI denotes incipient action, best
rendered in English as "standing up". The imperfect would then denote
the simple continuing action that we generally refer to as "standing".

This gives an interesting flavor, for example, to Eph 6.13:

Because of this, take up God's full armor, so that you can
be able to oppose [them] in the evil day, and to stand up
[after] finishing them all off.

I.e., we can still get knocked down in the battle, but in the
end, we're the ones who can stand back up.

Regards,
Jim V.