Acts 1:8 reads:
ALLA LHMYESQE DUNAMIN EPELQONTOS TOU hAGIOU PNEUMATOS EF' hUMAS KAI ESESQE MOU MARTURES EN TE IEROUSALHM KAI EN PASAi THi IOUDAIAi KAI SAMARIAi KAI hEWS ESXATOU THS GHS.
While studying the NT use of the future tense, I ran across something I had not thought about before. Daniel B. Wallace says that Acts 1:8 is an example of the predictive future. But he goes on to point out that the second future in the passage, namely, LHMYESQE DUNAMIN EPELQONTOS TOU hAGIOU PNEUMATOS EF' hUMAS KAI ESESQE MOU MARTURES, may be imperatival (Wallace, GGBB, 568). In fact, John Polhill contends that the future tense in Acts 1:8 does have "an imperatival sense" (Polhill, Acts, 85). He words the passage: "you will [must] receive power" and "you WILL be my witnesses."
Morphologically, the futures in Acts 1:8 could be construed as predictives or imperativals.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Acts 1:8 Read As An Imperatival Sentence
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2 comments:
Here in the Middle East, where I am living, the word "girl" is normally used on virgins only. As soon as she looses her viginity, she becomes a "woman." Thus the problem is more semiotic than linguistic.
Selam
Jørgen
Jørgen,
We use similar conventions in the US, albeit sometimes more loosely. And the word "maiden" is likewise ambiguous because it can refer to a young girl of marriageable age or describe a female who is sexually pure. Your comment about semiotics is also interesting.
Selam,
Edgar
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