I keep wondering as I read this thread if we're missing a contextual element
in the Mark 6:27 situation where the aorist participle APOSTEILAS preceded
the aorist indicative verb EPETAXEN. If memory serves, all the
explanations assume that the executioner is present at Herod's banquet.
However, I doubt that the executioner would make the guest list described in
6:21 (MEGISTASIN - lords/great people, CILIARCOIS - high-ranking military
officers, and PRWTOIS THS GALILAIAS - leading people of Galilee).
The question is, would the executioner have the kind of social status that
would make his presence at the banquet appropriate?
If not, is it possible that Herod sent for the executioner (therefore there
would be an ellipsis of the accusative messenger and an ellipsis of
SPEKOULATI [dative of indirect object})? This may seem like a long shot
unless the readers knew without explanation that the executioner would be
absent, and Mark was using characteristic economy of words.
I think that it is obvious that SPEKOULATORA is the accusative object of
EPETAXEN. I don't think that the syntax necessitates its function as the
accusative object of APOSTEILAS.
Cindy Westfall
PhD Student Roehampton