Re: Mark 1:23 (in an unclean spirit)
Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Tue, 4 Mar 1997 11:46:10 -0600
At 10:31 AM -0600 3/4/97, Wes.Williams@twcable.com wrote:
>>>How about Mark 1:23 where a man was "in an unclean spirit" (not vice
>>>versa as we often expect).
>
>>ANQRWPOS EN PNEUMATI AKAWARTW
>
>>Wouldn't it make better sense to understand this as "with an unclean spirit"?
>
>I agree that there are difficulties understanding this EN as locative. In
>recently researching the "EN + <a person>", I found that Zerwick proposes
>that
>this Mark 1:23 usage is a semitism. However, Zerwick did not show how it
>was a
>semitism.
>
>Does anyone have information showing why or how this may be a semitism?
Would it represent the Hebrew preposition B'? My sense for Semitisms as
such is not as keen as my scent for the un-Greek, but when checking on
usage of EN a few days ago I found it was already used in classical Attic
(albeit not frequently) in an instrumental sense, and I do think that EN
PNEUMATI AKAQARTWi here is, like BAPTIZEIN EN PNEUMATI hAGIWi, an
instrumental usage.
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/