Introduction: David McCollough

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davidmccollough
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Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:19 am

Introduction: David McCollough

Post by davidmccollough »

Hi, my name is David McCollough and I am a research student at London School of Theology working in New Testament. I need to improve my Greek and so I am happy to be able to join this site.

My immediate concern is how best to translate δίδοται in Acts 8:18. It is in a dependent clause and Rijksbaron (2002) paragraph 18.1 says of clauses with verbs of perception that, "In the dependent clause the language user may, therefore, use the same moods and tenses that he would use if he were to express the content of that dependent clause in an independent sentence." In that case, then, I am thinking that the independent sentence would be, "The Spirit is given through the laying on of the apostles' hands." It seems to follow that this would indicate that Simon recognized a principle "is given" rather than a series of actions, "was given". Is the relative time of the clause a function of grammar or a function of context?

ἰδὼν δὲ ὁ Σίμων ὅτι διὰ τῆς ἐπιθέσεως τῶν χειρῶν τῶν ἀποστόλων δίδοται τὸ πνεῦμα, προσήνεγκεν αὐτοῖς χρήματα (Act 8:18)

All the best,
David

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