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A Non-Aramaism in Luke 6,7
A Non-Aramaism in Luke 6,7
Author(s): J. A. L. Lee
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Novum Testamentum, Vol. 33, Fasc. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 28-34
Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1561195 .
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A NON-ARAMAISM
IN LUKE 6:7
by
J. A. L. LEE
Sydney, Australia
7xap'r7]pouvTo
ivW
This use, also found in the text of D at 11:54 and 13:24, has been
the subject of remark since the time of Wellhausen, who suggested
that an Aramaism was involved.2 In more recent discussion,
notably by Black, Fitzmyer, and Wilcox,3 attention has been
focused on establishing the necessary evidence on the Aramaic side,
namely the existence of a verb with the two senses of "find" and
"be able". It now seems beyond doubt that in Palestinian Aramaic
of the New Testament period skhwas in use in just this way. With
this settled, Fitzmyer and Wilcox are happy to conclude that the use
of 6upiaxwin the sense of "be able" reflects Aramaic interference.
But what of Greek usage? Is it safe to assume that in the Koine
was used only in the sense of "find", and that "be
period eupCaxco
able" was not part of its semantic range? For Black and Wilcox the
question simply does not arise. Fitzmyer is aware of its importance,
This reading, adopted in Westcott and Hort, Souter, NA25, continues to
hold the field in UBS3/NA26with the support of p4i'dR* B E f' 28 1241 al sa. The
majority reading has xa-rlTopCavfor xa%vrloptwV(often combined with xaCs'before
atuou).
2
J. Wellhausen, Einleitungin die dreierstenEvangelien(2Berlin, 1911), p. 17 (not
available to me: reference and substance from Wilcox's article cited in the next
note).
3 M. Black, An AramaicApproach
to theGospelsandActs('Oxford, 1967), pp. 1334. J.A. Fitzmyer, "The Study of the Aramaic Background of the New TestaAramean:Collected
AramaicEssays(SBL Monograph
ment", in A Wandering
Series,25,
1979), pp. 12-3 (originally published in 1975). M. Wilcox, "Semitisms in the New
derromischenWeltII.25.2 (1984), pp. 1011-2.
Testament", AufstiegundNiedergang
Fitzmyer's material reappears without substantial change in his TheGospelAccording to LukeI-IX (The AnchorBible, New York, 1981), pp. 117, 610-11.
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A NON-ARAMAISM
IN LUKE
6:7
29
but his investigation into Greek usage goes no further than a consideration of the one papyrus occurrence noted by BAG (1957)."
Having (rightly) rejected this as not being a true parallel to Luke
6:7, he treats the matter as closed.
In fact there is good evidence for the use of epC'xpaxin the sense
ep6pxIL Xyp4saoOkt
akrptc,&XX&LLxp&x vaac 9rv &v9pcnov,&vnxp&AxLXoc
&itavte
"At all events, give to anyone of us you please some layman with whom to carry
on an argument; he will find no way of dealing with him, but after moving the
man a little, in case the latter thwarts him, our man gives up trying to handle him,
and thereafter either reviles him, or laughs him to scorn, and remarks, 'He is a
mere layman; it is impossible to do anything with him."' (W. A. Oldfather, Loeb
edn.)
1 VOC7CpOq4OtI(.
IX TOL&CF8
M(xX986vC.)v7tP&TILOCCLV
"After this, he began to revolve many large projects in his mind; but his hopes
were fixed first and more especially on undertakings close at hand, and he found
a way to take direct part in Macedonian affairs, on grounds something like the
following." (B. Perrin, Loeb edn.)
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30
J. A. L. LEE
Ouaciav&T6Fjivov ou xixpatvv,TO
.
r^lv pcrTl7atv,
AraownoX,Tyt ...
espioxovTo Xuoat
"One of the students said to the others, 'Why is it that a sheep being led to
slaughter does not cry out, while a pig makes a great deal of noise?' When no one
was able to answer the question, Aesop said ..."
Bt'imaro)lXv,
xal 6 L ui)Pio
pxcov
p6pou;
toxX,6aaBocat
"In those times the kings had a custom of exacting tribute from one another by
a contest of virtue (?): they did not engage in wars or battles, but used to send
each other philosophical problems by letter, and the one who was not able to solve
(a problem) paid tribute to the sender."
Dio Chrysostomos 33.44 xal nvti pliv UrjyV6pY-rovtatxaot oao([i 6Upp(tivTV n6\Lv,
rat tvi t ioC
t
xasXaTiEX
atv, tl np.tp.tl8tv6;
0ro6u . TauTa7cotov:ra;oux oalXtoV
xpiTTOvo; espov txiLTv.
"Some of you are angry and say that I am insulting your city, but they do not
find fault with those who do these things; some on the other hand are perhaps
laughing at the fact that I was not able to talk about anything more important."
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31
X
xixal ap&'r
c
aI OXCo, Ti d&vrta &VpdLRt xal O
ox
yuvatx6; SEp7ivou &XXa ta, xa yivcjx?cV
&XXa T6popaxa
cjvoa oiC ErpaiT4ALOL,
etva 7iv4w arTot;.
prxa
"I received from Ptoleminus 63 (artabs?) of apples and from the wife of Serenus
an additional 11 (artabs?), and I want you to know that they have all gone bad
and I have not been able to give them to the persons to whom you wrote to me
to give them, but I have bought some to send to them."8
B.G.U. 822.28-9 (II-III AD) xal Iv
sUpo[J]9v irt=iooXhv
Typ&iai.
aot
0pavf,
t OFiJlov
FLot Tp9ov
'w
X&p'rlv,
"And if it seems good to you, send me some clean writing paper, so that I can
write a letter".
P. CairoPreis. 2.12-4 (362 AD) &xououv &norjt7ar e tlc S itov Epyov,ioCo; tIup
iuWEtptf.aTlT6v Piov, itripCq&vBplliScoxv
r^AvaVv
auS,Btov.
"When I had gone away on business, so that I might be able to provide for my
livelihood, she gave the said wife in marriage to another man."9
P. CairoMasp. 2.111.23 (VI AD) ... gwco;f{upca;ev loiXC; povat.
"... so that we may be able to live quietly."
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32
J. A. L. LEE
To xpa'a-to;.
Idem58.1 ouXtup)EopL; xtpsfloat&dno
Idem66.3 tipt oxslc oXfoa) U.Xt&
xipSou;.'3
We may round off this collection with three examples from the
Patristic literature that happen to have come to light but might be
no more than the tip of the iceberg.14
PatrumPG 65.253B xal oux gEpov pobsxauxa&roxptvaoaoiaurTp.
Apophthegmata
Idem 333C -r;
C x xv
Buo
ppiLoxet taoat;
7o ptLiMcM(at
xai outt'Sv I.txp&vILouoivatv
7&vrvo0Ov,
Ephraem Syrus 2.105C SoU3
giplioxo paXgtv.'1
"I am distracted on all sides, and am not even able to recite my Small Office."
See Sortes,p. V, and especially "The Origin and Date of the Sortes Astrampsychi", Illinois ClassicalStudies 1 (1976), pp. 53-8. BAGD's note in its list of
"Writers and Writings'in Antiquity", p. xxxiii, also needs revision in the light
of Browne's researches. Remarks here and above about BAGD apply equally to
Bauer6 (1988), which shows no change from BAGD.
13 The
remaining examples are at Quaest.25 (restored), Dec. Resp. 18.1, 26.2,
57.10, 67.4, 72.6, 81.8, 87.1.
14 I owe the first two to E. A.
Sophocles, GreekLexiconof theRomanandByzantine
Periods(New York, 1887). There is no mention of this use in Lampe's PatristicGreek
Lexiconunder tup(oxw.
15 Quoted from
Lampe s.v. aovo4t;:the edition of this text is not available to
me.
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33
Euripides, Medea195-8
8i pPo'Tc&v
o'S d; X6szo;
=fT(COu;
vnups'o .to6tIjxxi xoXuX6p8oi;
48sdtC7rea6t4v,d-EC,)v Bdn
betvat m %V'Xat
crip&Uouat
s6lrouc.
"But no one has found a way to stop, by music and many-stringed songs, the
hateful griefs of mortals, because of which deaths and dread fortunes overthrow
houses."'
16
ld
nauaa4fl C
-NOIp&
Bi ag vAcrepovxvO
o6to
XCp&
t0
Io oe;
CT=avto Koptv8(wv
AxwvxOyCXatot,
?WrVLXflaXX1EwYs
1t=&votnIIO?i-LBat-qdWV
vokn xaps6v'a ?rpt-nxoa(ou;.
"Next to them stood 5000 Corinthians, and they had secured from Pausanias that
beside them should stand the 300 Potidaeans from Pallene who were present."
x L &xovtv,todr
rt x1i &XXot
1id
kc elsstv 'Ax=pv&vL,
XPtpcraot
xph
vao. &vap&vTrt,o'to065'5xcg x -oCwidvou; 'r p3xoi &qsicvaot
g6piouO..
16 Cf.
howto", citing this example; Page, Medea
LSJ s.v. 1.4: "find outor discover
? 2135: "!findhowto".
ad loc.: "has discovered howto stop"; Smyth, GreekGrammar
17 Cf.
J. Humbert, Syntaxegrecque(Paris, 1972), p. 105: "II arrive souvent que
l'inte&etpersonnel que l'on porte A I'action donne a celle-ci une nuance adeterminEee: en face de i6pfaxet
ai
vtrouveru, tuppaxsaOoct
signifie fr6quemmeni aramvier
trouver"."I
'" Further examples just like the one in Hdt. are found in Dio Cassius: 42.20.3
-CY&plid &Vac-CavP&OPWv
xatl1 'r&XXM
GUvtE6CSdtC"ax2(
OIPLCtv... dUPETo
ou=yxcOKOO((al
("he obtained for himself that he should sit on the same benches with them and
in other respects be reckoned among them"); 47.31.5 $ tc KXeo,,&zpx
... tij'pvo'r6v
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34
J. A. L. LEE
"... and many javelin-men also, land animals so to speak, Acarnanians and
others, put aboard ships, who will not even find the way to discharge their missiles
sitting down".19
Finally it may be observed that the same development was established early in the case of a verb of similar semantic force, namely
eXco.From Homer onwards, and continuing into later Greek, this
verb is occasionally found constructed with an infinitive, giving the
sense of "have means (to)", "be able (to)" (see LSJ A.III., BAGD
I.6.a.). A New Testament example affords the most apt
illustration:
au-co.20
aro6v, t'va XocotvxoMroTopItv
[John] 8:6 to*to OFl,rrov 7ettp&Covcc;
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