From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed May 03 2000 - 07:03:25 EDT
At 5:59 AM -0500 5/3/00, Ron Tyson wrote:
>Harold,
> I'm sorry about referring to UMWN as the last word in the verse. I am
>speaking of UMWN which is after HAMARTIWN (the possessive genitive). My
>question involves the use of UMWN rather than the use of AUTOU. Do you see
>what I'm asking now? Sorry I was so unclear with my previous message.
Ron, I think you meant the last word of the CLAUSE:
Text: BAPTISQHTW hEKASTOS hUMWN EPI TWi ONOMATI IHSOU CRISTOU EIS AFESIN
TWN HAMARTIWN hUMWN ...
and your original inquiry was:
> Perhaps someone can help me with Acts 2:38. I have read all the
>correspondence on this subject from 1997. However, I didn't find anything
>dealing with the last word of the verse--UMWN. Is there any significance
>in the fact that it is UMWN instead of AUTOU, which would agree with
>EKASTOS? If anyone can give me some insight, please do.
I don't know any name for this construction (other than "constructio ad
sensum" which means that the meaning required accounts for the perhaps
strange syntax), but I might call it, if I were in the business of writing
a new Greek NT grammar with as many new categories for constructions as
possible ;-) , a "to-all-and-sundry" construction: the imperative is given
in the 3d sg. passive with a distributive singular subject--to which is
attached a partitive genitive: "let EACH ONE--OF YOU--be baptized ... for
forgiveness of YOUR sins." As you've noted, it could theoretically have
been TWN hAMARTIWN AUTOU or, more in terms of Attic grammar, TWN hAMARTIWN
hEAUTOU. But in fact the anomaly here, if there is one, is the shift to the
singular (BAPTISQHTW hEKASTOS) when a whole group is being addressed and
given a command. Theoretically the command could have been expressed in a
second person plural imperative with an adverbial PANTES (BAPTISQHTE
PANTES), but I guess the immediately governing factor is that, although we
can conceive of mass marriages and mass burials and mass awards of degrees,
even if several are baptized at the same time, the baptism is understood as
a personal and individual commitment, and for that reason the singular
BAPTISQHTW hEKASTOS hUMWN seems the appropriate phrasing. But note that
when the verse resumes (after TWN hAMARTIWN hUMWN), we shift into the
second-person plural: ... KAI LHMYESQE THN DWREAN TOU hAGIOU PNEUMATOS.
Does that get at the problem bothering you, Ron?
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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