Continued from last post above ↑
Continuation of excerpts from the out-of-print third edition of An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1967), by Matthew Black:
To be continued...
Continuation of excerpts from the out-of-print third edition of An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1967), by Matthew Black:
But, as Howard has pointed out, if Luke is translating Aramaic, then he gives the correct rendering of laḥda, namely, σφόδρα, in Acts vi. 7. A still more serious objection is the assumed equation of ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό with laḥda; the evidence of the Syriac versions is irrelevant; laḥda is there equivalent to a quite different phrase, εἰς ἕν. The Aramaic adverb laḥda could never be represented in Greek by ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό; the Aramaic for Luke's Greek adverbial phrase is kaḥda.*
*This adverb means both 'together' and 'at the same time', e.g. Isa. lxv. 25, Hebrew kᵉʾeḥādh (LXX ἅμα), Dan. ii. 35, Aramaic kaḥda (LXX ἅμα). This latter meaning would suit Acts ii. 47 (D): 'And the Lord was adding those who were being saved at the same time in the ecclesia'; the adverb refers back to verse 46―they continued in prayer in the temple, and were breaking bread from house to house, and at the same time, the Lord was adding those who were being saved in the ecclesia. Fresh light is shed on the peculiar Lucan expression προστιθέναι ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό by an exact parallel in the Manual of Discipline (ed. M. Burrows, 1951), Plate V, line 7, בהאספם ליחד, where the phrase means 'to join the congregation'. The relevant Qumran evidence has now been fully examined by M. Wilcox, op. cit., pp. 93 ff. This is the fullest treatment available of this idiomatic Lucan expession and the Qumran usage seems conclusive for the sense, 'to be united to the (Christian) fellowship' at Acts ii. 47.
To be continued...
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