Instrumental SUN+dative (Acts 7:35)

Clayton Bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Sat, 18 Oct 1997 11:46:56 +0000

The NT Lexicons I looked at do *not* account for an
instrumental use of SUN+dative. Is SUN+dative in Acts 7:35
instrumental? BDF (217.2) says it is. BDF says that it is a
rendering of the Hebrew BeYaD and means in this context,
*by means of*. BeYaD is a common construction in the MT
and it has a range of meanings, the instrumental *by means
of* being only one of them.

I took a tour of the *Great Lexicons* looking for an
instrumental use of SUN+dative. After reading BAGD four
times, I concluded that the closest that BAGD comes to
admitting an instrumental use is on page 781(3) "to denote
help." I say this is the closest, because this is not really an
instrumental use. LSJ 1690(6) lists an instrumental use
meaning *by means of*.

The scribes didn't all follow the reading you find in NA27.
Aleph* H P read EN for SUN. I don't know what this proves
other than the limitations of the apparatus in NA27 which
ignores this variant.

Putting all this information together I come up with a single
question. Is the SUN+dative in Acts 7:35 instrumental?

I would appreciate any insights you might have on this
question.

Clay Bartholomew
Three Tree Point