From: Mike Sangrey (mike@sojurn.lns.pa.us)
Date: Tue Apr 25 2000 - 10:27:01 EDT
Roger Hutchinson wrote;
> > Acts 2:42 reads--
> > HSAN DE PROSKARTEROUNTES THi DIDAXHi TWN
> > APOSTOLWN KAI THi KOINWNIA, [KAI?] THi KLASEI TOU ARTOU KAI TAIS
> > PROSEUXAIS.
> > 3. KAI is left out before THi KLASEI TOU ARTOU. Does this make the
> > sentence structure awkward?
Carlton Winbery <winberyc@speedgate.net> responds:
> 3. I do not think that the breaking of bread exhaust the practice of
> KOINWNIA, but if the article is omitted (some good evidence supports
> it but it is easier to explain why diff. scribes would have added it
> independently), then it would be possible to see THi KLASEI TOU ARTOU
> as being in apposition (modifying) to and explaining a form of
> KOINWNIA. That would leave one to wonder why the last item is not also
> modified, as is the DIDAXHi, but it would make sense that way.
I've often explained this as a list of three items, not four, the
first and last being: Apostolic teaching and many different prayers.
The middle item I've glossed as 'the participatory breaking of bread'
which immediately requires some explanation.
The immediate context of this verse forcefully--in fact, it is rather
shocking to our individualistic, capitalistic ears--places in front
of us a highly communal life style (not necessarily the giving up of
private ownership, just a much liberated communal use of property).
I say that to simply emphasize that the context emphasizes KOINWNIA.
Furthermore, a man named Robert Jewett, whom I know nothing of (relying
on someone named B. Reicke, "Diakonie, Festfreude und Zelos in Verbindung
mit der altchristlichen Agapenfeier") strongly links KOINWNIA and the
love feasts of the first several centuries. He says:
"Several recent studies have explored the evidence of frequently
shared common meals in the Pauline churches, which illuminates
the social background of Gal. 2.14. A form-critical analysis of 2
Thess. 3.10 shows it to be a community regulation probably devised
by tenement churches that relied on members to share their wages
in support of daily love-feasts. The wording indicates that
this regulation was part of the foundational catechism of the
Thessalonian church, which indicates the central significance of
these meals in congregational life."
This is from: "Gospel and Commensality: Social and Theological
Implications of Galatians 2.14", Robert Jewett. Unfortunately, I have
a photocopy of this article with no citation.
Whether you agree with all of what Jewett (or Reicke) says, they bring
to the fore the strong association between KOINWNIA and the love-feast.
Jewett goes on to say he believes the arthrous AGAPN in Romans 13:10
refers to the love-feast. Which I find rather interesting given the
context there of treating a weaker brother and the similarity of the
flow of thought to the same in I Cor.--food for thought.
I say all that to say I think THi KOINWNIA THi KLASEI TOU ARTO is
clearly appositional and should nearly be thought of in the same way
English hyphenates words--though it is difficult to think in terms of
hyphenating a word with a phrase. I think of hendiadys as the normal
Greek way of doing the hyphenation but that can't be done here since
Luke is in the midst of a list, so he uses apposition.
So, Luke is succinctly capturing the prominent characteristics of the
very early church: the Apostolic teaching, the participatory love-feast,
and the many prayers. The careful choice of construction balances, links,
and makes prominent *both* the KOINWNIA and the KLASEI TOU ARTO. I think
the participation was both horizontal and vertical as the centrality of
the Christ Jesus was brought into the midst of their communal efforts
to serve one another in word and deed, *and* as these early believers
rehearsed a modified Passover Seder reconstructed around a risen Messiah.
Finally, I think we need to be very careful of anachronism here. It
is easy for us to read back into these texts what we see today.
--
Mike Sangrey
mike@sojurn.lns.pa.us
Landisburg, Pa.
There is no 'do' in faith, everywhere present within it is 'done'.
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