From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sat Jul 04 1998 - 08:32:54 EDT
The most common way to understand the phrase EKELEUSEN APACQHNAI in Acts 12:19
is that Herod gave an order for the guards to be executed. I don't think the
lexical evidence or the textual evidence bears this out.
The term APACQHNAI (APAGW) is used in legal contexts where it describes
leading away to trial, to prison and to execution. This range of use is the
first clue that APAGW by itself does not provided the information "to what" in
any of these contexts. The SENSE of APAGW seems to be simply "lead away" with
the destination either specified or implied.
The textual evidence points in a similar direction. Codex Bezae replaces
APACQHNAI with *APOKTANQHNAI. We should accept the reading APACQHNAI as the
original reading because it is the habit of Codex Bezae to provided more
explicit clarification where something is left ambiguous. I am speculating
that the scribe thought that APACQHNAI left the fate of the guards undecided
and for that reason supplied the word APOKTANQHNAI to make it clear that the
guards were put to death. This argument is somewhat circular but the
assumptions that it is based on do have the support of major studies in Codex
Bezae.
So based on the usage of APAGW both in classical and koine periods, I am
inclined to concluded that the sense of APAGW does not include the semantic
component "to what" . The "to what" information is either supplied by
additional information in the context or it is left ambiguous. And in the Acts
12:19 it is left ambiguous.
I am sure that all kinds of historical and cultural information can be brought
out that points to the conclusion that the guards in Acts 12 were executed but
this kind of information is quite beside the point. The guards probably were
executed but the word APACQHNAI does not provide that information.
-- Clayton Stirling Bartholomew Three Tree Point P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062*For the minutiologists (Edward's term) the reading in Codex Bezae is AP[O]K[T]ANQHNAI.
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