From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Sun Jul 06 1997 - 23:24:22 EDT
On Sun 6 Jul 97 (19:29:32 +0800), Steven scox@ns1.chinaonline.com.cn.net
wrote:
> is LASCW MESOS in Acts 1:18
> (a) a medical term (cf "rupture")
> (b) an idiom (cf "break down")
> (c) equivalent to LASCW EN MESWi / EIS MESON
> by abbreviation from LASCW MESOS AUTWN
Well, I'm not a doctor, and I'm not a professor of Greek. But first: it can't
be LASCW (sic; you mean LASKW?) because ELAKHSEN is from LAKA/W, to burst
apart, not LASKW, ELAKHSA, to crash.
IMHO it can't be a medical hernia, which is typically caused by excessive
coughing, or excessive straining at stools due to constipation, or excessive
heavy manual labour such as lifting and manhandling heavy objects.
I've been told that victims of judicial (or suicidal) hanging defecate
themselves as their neck breaks. This may have been what befell Judas; is
EKLASEN MESOS meant to be taken literally or figuratively?
Could MESOS "midriff" be a polite euphemism for the anus or back passage?
Or could Dr Luke the beloved physician mean that his KOILIA burst open in the
region of the umbilicus? Children sometimes get a paraumbilical or an
epigastric hernia; but not adults, who suffer inguinal or femoral hernias.
MESOS is an adjective which agrees in gender, number and case with the noun
it qualifies. It can stand on its own as an adjectival noun; maybe this is
what we have here. hOUTOS is the subject of the verb EKTHSATO "acquired
purchase of"; MESOS could be the subject of the verb ELAKHSEN, "[his] midriff
burst". The personal pronoun is redundant with parts of the body; we're not
talking about someone else's midriff.
The neuter form MESON appears used an an adverb, notably in the Luke 23:45
passage that you quote (the veil of the Temple torn "in the midst"). Here
MESON could not be the subject of the verb ESCISQE.
There is no MSS evidence for MESON as opposed to MESOS in the text of Acts
1:18. PRHNHS GENOMENOS means "having fallen forward"; not "falling headlong".
Judas' MESOS, having distended forwards, burst open? Did the suicidal Judas
commit hara kiri, and slash his abdomen before jumping? Matthew 27:5 simply
says KAI APELQWN APHGXATO.
The death of Judas is a well-known target of Bible debunkers.
What do others think?
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA Bristol, 1963 (hons in Theology) <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
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