ECT ACTS 10 EXEGETICAL

[Arsenios]

Acts 10:6

Acts 10:6

BYZ –
ουτος ξενιζεται παρα τινι σιμωνι βυρσει
This one is being lodged alongside a certain Simon, a tanner

ω εστιν οικια παρα θαλασσαν
to whom is a house alongside the sea...

Another almost normal construction - The "being lodged alongside" is how Greek states is being put up in a room or cottage at a person's residence, and the 'to whom is a house' simply means "whose house"...

This one is lodging with a certain Simon, a tanner
whose house is on the seashore

It is wonderful how specific this is from the angel...

This ends the account of the encounter of Cornelius with the angel...

Arsenios

 

[Lazy afternoon]

Who did the creating?

The one God the Father.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

LA

 

[patrick jane]

The one God the Father.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

LA

Amen. with The Word Of God, made flesh In Christ AND God's Holy Spirit. Praise God they Are One ! ! ! - atrol:


View attachment 19373

 

[Arsenios]

Acts 10:7

Acts 10:7

BYZ – 10:7
ως δε απηλθεν ο αγγελος ο λαλων τω κορνηλιω
Now as departed the angel the (one) speaking to Kornilios

φωνησας δυο των οικετων αυτου
he called two of the household of him

και στρατιωτην ευσεβη των προσκαρτερουντων αυτω
and a general pious of those attending to him

There are a few issues here for translation... The 'os de plus aorist apilthen indicates immediate action... This because, perhaps, angels do not stroll off, but they sort of disappear, so the sense is that immediately upon the departure of the angel speaking with him, Cornelius took action to obey the angel's instructions...

So as the angel speaking to Cornelius departed,
he called two from his household
and a pious General from those attending to him

And the event is set into motion at once holding an immediate council and sending forth his servants to do the angel's bidding.

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:8

ACTS 10:8

BYZ –
και εξηγησαμενος αυτοις απαντα
and having exegeted to them everything

απεστειλεν αυτους εις την ιοππην
he sent them into the Joppa

I did not expect to find the term exegete in this text!
Yet here it is, translated as "explained"...
So the thread title seems justified!

EXEGESAMENOS indeed

And having explained everything to them
He sent them into Joppa

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:9

ACTS 10:9

So the narrative continues:

BYZ – 10:9
τη δε επαυριον οδοιπορουντων εκεινων και τη πολει εγγιζοντων
So the next day, journeying these and to the city approaching

ανεβη πετρος επι το δωμα προσευξασθαι περι ωραν εκτην
ascended Peter upon the roof to pray about hour sixth

This verse is transitional from Cornelius as the subject being talked about to Peter, and it flows naturally in the Greek narrative using the movement of those Cornelius sent to effect the shift to Peter. And it does so using the dramatic subjunctive present for the three sojourners, and it is worth doing the same in English:

On the next day, as these are traveling and approaching the city,
Peter went up onto the roof to pray, about the sixth hour.

No language narrates a story quite like the Greek language...

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:10

ACTS 10:10

BYZ –
εγενετο δε προσπεινος και ηθελεν γευσασθαι
But he became hungry and desired to eat.

παρασκευαζοντων δε εκεινων
of the being prepared things

επεπεσεν επ αυτον εκστασις
there fell upon him ekstasis.

This one is a little harder to wrestle into Greek style English...

He became hungry and wanted to eat
of those things being prepared.
Ekstasis fell upon him.

Ekstasis means 'beside one's self', and often refers to a visionary state of being... Ecstasy does not quite capture it, and I know of no other English term that would work, so I just transliterated the Greek... "Of those things being prepared" I think simply means the noon meal of the 6th hour... And note the prayer of the 6th hour, and Cornelius prayer of the 9th hour... These are the prayers of the hours, first, third, sixth and ninth that were prayed then and are prayed to this day and hour in the Christian Church...

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

So now we have Peter, doing his noon prayers, 6th Hour, and he is hungry, and food is being prepared, and he falls into a trance of some sort, called ekstasis, which literally means standing outside of where one is standing, and given what is about to happen, should be understood to mean that he fell into a visionary state...

So here is what happened next in this visionary state:

και θεωρει τον ουρανον ανεωγμενον
And he is perceiving the heaven having opened

και καταβαινον επ αυτον σκευος τι
and coming down upon him a certain vessel

ως οθονην μεγαλην τεσσαρσιν αρχαις δεδεμενον
like a large linen by four corners having been tied

και καθιεμενον επι της γης
and being lowered upon the earth


Our presumption of him entering into a visionary state is confirmed by the second word, θεωρει, which is the term used for exactly that, and the state is known to this day and hour as Theoria, and is pronounced Thee-owe-ree'-ah... It is the word that designates visionary states of Orthodox Saints.

And it is in the dramatic present: "He is perceiving..." Very few English translations use this present tense that is in the text... We tend to default to our English narrative past tense, and translate it: "He saw..." Is it a big deal? Probably not...

But the next part of the sentence is a big deal exegetically, because it relates what he is seeing as descending UPON HIM, which the NAS omits this entirely, and the KJV gives garbled mention as "UNTO him"... The text states UPON HIM, and the importance is this: UPON HIM tells us and Peter that this vision is not merely an observation about the world, but is for Peter himself. Peter in his own person is being addressed with a vision-message...

So let us wrestle with an English literal of this:

And he is perceiving heaven opened
and a certain vessel descending upon him
like a large linen tied by four corners
and being lowered upon the earth.

And we reading this are keeping the context...
What is the context?
Peter is really hungry!
Is this his picnic basket?
Filled with tasty foods?
Coming down from heaven?
For him alone?

I mean, a person's gotta kinda be careful when slipping off into visionary states when they are really hungry, yes?

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:12

ACTS 10:12

So finally we get to take a peek into this big linen four cornered tied-up pouch that God has caused to be lowered from heaven to earth right onto one really hungry Apostle of the Lord named Peter... What will the Lord give to feed this hungry man at prayer?

BYZ –
εν ω υπηρχεν παντα τα τετραποδα της γης
In which were coming forth all the four-footeds of the earth

και τα θηρια
and the beasts

και τα ερπετα
and the reptiles

και τα πετεινα του ουρανου
and the wingeds of the sky

And for us, what sumptuous fare! Roast beef, chicken and turkey, not to mention sauteed snake and barbecued alligator! Finally, God has given poor Peter something really tasty for food, and nourishing and plentiful! What joy must he feel at all this largess from God!

In which were coming forth all the four-footeds of the earth,
and savage beasts and reptiles, and things winged of the air!

And one of the things that should be perhaps mentioned here is the fact that this takes man out of the Garden wherein he was to freely eat of all the FRUIT of the plants, and places him in the WORLD wherein he is to eat MEAT...

A fertile metaphor...

The dietary restrictions of the Levitical Law of the Jews are herein lifted from the Jews who follow Christ by this gift from God to the Chief Apostle... Whereas before they were given strict restrictions upon what they could and could not eat, and when they could and could not eat it, and much was forbidden them to eat at all, now all the things living are given as food...

Next, we will find out how our very hungry Peter receives this wonderful Gift of Food from God...

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:13

ACTS 10:13

BYZ –
και εγενετο φωνη προς αυτον
and came to be a voice toward him

αναστας πετρε θυσον και φαγε
"Arise, Peter kill and eat."

Finally, an easy translation - The only exegetical portion being the pros auton, which recalls the ep' auton earlier, which places this event specifically for Peter, where the linen descended UPON HIM, and the voice came into existence TOWARD HIM... This is not an event of philosophic import, but is instead of personal import to Peter...

And toward him a voice came to be:
"Arise, Peter. Kill, and eat."

So NOW, finally, Peter knows he not only can eat, but that a voice has told him to eat, and to kill, and to arise...

I can hear the sizzle of the steaks!

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:14

ACTS 10:14

BYZ –
ο δε πετρος ειπεν μηδαμως κυριε
but Peter said: "By no means, Lord.

οτι ουδεποτε εφαγον παν κοινον η ακαθαρτον
because never have I eaten any common or unpurified."

Peter, hungry to the point of going into a trance state of hallucinating unclean foods, even in this state, he declines what he knows to be a wrong instruction against his observance of the Levitical Law of Moses prohibiting such food...

So we have to commend Peter in the face of a sore temptation in a vision of really tasty food... He just said no...

Have I mentioned that correcting an Apostolic Father is no small matter? We are witnessing how it takes place... And the correction comes from within the body of Christ through Spirit instructed people of God integrated with Spiritual events within the soul of the one being corrected...

Notably here, Paul could only correct Peter with respect to his hypocrisy, and not with respect to the Law... Apostles just don't correct all that easily...

And the last three words are all adjectives without a noun to modify... And this is fairly common practice in Greek, where the definite article marking a noun to come is followed by an adjective which then functions as a noun, so that "the reddened" means "the thing that is reddened", so here the definite article is replaced by the adjective that functions as a definite article, 'pan', or 'any', with the two adjectives modifying the implied 'food'...

But Peter said: "By no means, Lord.
Because I have never eaten anything common or unpurified."

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:15

ACTS 10:15

BYZ –
και φωνη παλιν εκ δευτερου προς αυτον
and a voice again from a second toward him:

α ο θεος εκαθαρισεν συ μη κοινου
"What the God has purified you not commonize."

The first half of this verse has no verb, which in Greek, the language of verbs, emphasizes the unwritten verb bursting forth by the palin (again), which is the verb "said", but note that even in v.13 the verb is not "said" but 'egeneto' which means "came to be"... And this because when a voice speaks to a person in a visionary state, it is not (as a general rule) heard with the ears, but is 'heard' with the nous (mind), where indeed it just sort of "comes to be"...

And the ek deuterou, a genitive, so "out OF a 2nd" is, I am assuming, the Greek way of saying, "a second time", which is how it is translated by most, and it makes sense... Meaning repetition in the sense of twice with 'palin' (again)...

The second half has two verbs, the first normal, except that it does mean purified, using the same root as found in the Beattitude "Blessed are the pure in heart" and in Paul's writing "We hold the Mystery of the Faith in a PURIFIED conscience..."

So that the meaning is not just cleansed, but purified...

The second verb is an adjective pressed into service as a verb, for the adjective is the same as the name for the Greek of the New Testament, which is KOINE, or common, Greek... Simplified Greek, for those whose Greek is a second language, not their native one... So that even though the -IZE ending is not in the text, it is the most literal I can make it to be in a single word...

And again a second time a voice toward him:
"What God has purified, do not make common."

So Peter is rebuked again...

Which shows to go you that possession of Apostolic Gifts does not make one idiot-proof for democracy...

And in his defense, Peter was of a mixed mind regarding this issue in his ministry to the Gentiles, for which Paul rebuked him in the flesh... So he was coming around, and got some help, that's all... Hardly a condemnatory feature this...

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:16

ACTS 10:16

BYZ –
τουτο δε εγενετο επι τρις
Now this came to be upon three

και παλιν ανεληφθη το σκευος εις τον ουρανον
and again was taken up the linen into the heaven

This is one of those places where I do not know why the Greek uses egeneto, came to be... It may simply mean the action was repeated... It may be because the action is in a visionary state, where everything "comes to be", and it may mean something else... When this happens, is simply place it on my back burner of unanswered questions, and sooner or later, it will come forth again and be answered, and maybe even before I die... "Upon three" is apparently the way the Greeks say: "Three times"... But I do not know what the full expression is that this would be a condensation from...

The "palin" also indicates sequencing, derived from "again", so I will give it the gloss: "thereupon"...

This occurred three times,
And thereupon the linen was taken up into heaven.

Arsenios

 

[Cross Reference]

BYZ –
τουτο δε εγενετο επι τρις
Now this came to be upon three

και παλιν ανεληφθη το σκευος εις τον ουρανον
and again was taken up the linen into the heaven

This is one of those places where I do not know why the Greek uses egeneto, came to be... It may simply mean the action was repeated... It may be because the action is in a visionary state, where everything "comes to be", and it may mean something else... When this happens, is simply place it on my back burner of unanswered questions, and sooner or later, it will come forth again and be answered, and maybe even before I die... "Upon three" is apparently the way the Greeks say: "Three times"... But I do not know what the full expression is that this would be a condensation from...

The "palin" also indicates sequencing, derived from "again", so I will give it the gloss: "thereupon"...

This occurred three times,
And thereupon the linen was taken up into heaven.

Arsenios

Can you explain how any of that edifies anyone?

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:17

ACTS 10:17

BYZ –
ως δε εν εαυτω διηπορει ο πετρος
Now as in himself entirely at a loss the Peter

τι αν ειη το οραμα ο ειδεν
what might be the vision which he had seen

και ιδου οι ανδρες οι απεσταλμενοι απο του κορνηλιου
And behold! The men the ones sent from Cornelius

διερωτησαντες την οικιαν σιμωνος
having inquired of the house of Simon

επεστησαν επι τον πυλωνα
stood upon the porch

This is one of only two or three places in the whole Bible where the Greek Optitive case is used in a verb, eiay, the third word of the second line. Subjunctive is Biblical default, indicating a should-be with a high likelihood of will-be... Not here... Peter is at a total loss about the meaning of the vision, and has no idea whatsoever as to what it MIGHT be... The British would say he was gob-smacked by it!


Nor is he given any TIME to figure it out, because the intrepid Cornelians are already on the porch.

Thus was Peter, within himself, entirely at a loss
as to what the vision which he had seen might be...
And Behold!
The very men sent from Cornelius,
Having enquired of the house of Simon,
Stood on the porch!

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

Can you explain how any of that edifies anyone?

It is just a stroll through the Greek text, with the purpose of making it accessible to folks who, like me, do not speak Greek, but who unlike me, may think the Greek inaccessible...

If one, for instance, is insisting on a particular meaning of some passage, based on their particular translation, then this exercise may encourage them to address the source of that translation, to see if the Greek accords with the English version they are reading...

I know of no other way to resolve many of the issues that are so divisive here on TOL than to see what the original text actually means in its own terms...

My hope is for a simple and direct and literal non-doctrinaire translation of the actual Greek text... It is hard to find such a translation in English... Even the KJV in its modernized version simply gets some terms just wrong...

And the idea is to establish the text in such a way that we can differentiate literal meaning from competing interpretations that we can then insist that they at least not contradict it...

I would simply like folks to not be intimidated by the Greek text...

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:18

ACTS 10:18

This is what I begin with:

KJV – And called (5660), and asked (5711) whether Simon, which was surnamed (5746) Peter, were lodged (5743) there.
BYZ –
και φωνησαντες (5660) επυνθανοντο (5711) ει σιμων ο επικαλουμενος (5746) πετρος ενθαδε ξενιζεται (5743)

And then I remove the Strong's Numbers and divide the phrases of the text with room enough to transliterate under the Greek:

BYZ –
και φωνησαντες επυνθανοντο


ει σιμων ο επικαλουμενος πετρος


ενθαδε ξενιζεται

Then I transliterate the Greek into English and bold and color the Greek thus:

BYZ –
και φωνησαντες επυνθανοντο
And having called out they were asking

ει σιμων ο επικαλουμενος πετρος
if Simon who being surnamed Peter

ενθαδε ξενιζεται
there is being lodged.

Rolling the mouse over a term parses it below the text, making it easy to transliterate the grammar, and clicking on a Greek word gives the definition... It is easy to do...

Then I do a little commentary as I see fit, or not, like here, and provide a better English literal rendition:

And having called,
they were asking if Simon surnamed Peter
was being lodged there.

With the tools available at the studylight interlinear website, the translation is a snap... Hard part is learning the Greek alphabet, a two day enterprise max...

It is SO easy that even an old and addle-brained geezer like me can do it...

Jes' sayin'...

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:19

ACTS 10:19

BYZ –
του δε πετρου διενθυμουμενου περι του οραματος
From the Peter deliberating concerning the vision

ειπεν αυτω το πνευμα
said to him the Spirit:

ιδου ανδρες ζητουσιν σε
"Behold! Men are seeking you."

The beginning, "tou de Petrou dienthumouminou" seems to indicate a genitive of source or duration, so most texts translate as "While Peter was deliberating about the vision..." And we must keep context here, he is INWARDLY deliberating within himself - He has just been spiritually gob-smacked, and it is in this condition of heart that he is thrust into - GASP!! - VISITORS??? And the same Gob-Smacking Spirit is shoving him into a social encounter???

Apostles are hard to swerve...

While Peter was deliberating about the vision,
the Spirit said to him:
"Behold! Men are seeking you!"

So he wants to think about the vision, and some men are interrupting him... What to do?

If it were me, I would hose them off the porch!
I would hose-pipe 'em out the Scuppers!
I'd send 'em over the side!

But wait! That was the Spirit talking!

Maybe He has something to say??

D'ya think??

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:20

ACTS 10:20

BYZ –
αλλα αναστας
But you arise!

καταβηθι
You go down!

και πορευου συν αυτοις
and you go forth with them

μηδεν διακρινομενος
nothing doubting

διοτι εγω απεσταλκα αυτους
Because I Myself have sent them.

The last "I Myself" doubles the "ego" because that I is doubled by its being spoken, and not merely included in the verb ending, which is the un-emphasized way of saying it... Three imperative Spiritual commands, and no questioning permitted. So now Peter is REALLY Gob-smacked! But a light is, we would hope, beginning to come on in him...

But arise!
Go down and go forth with them, doubting nothing...
Because I Myself have sent them.

This is more serious than a circumcision party of Christian Pharisees!

Arsenios

 

[Arsenios]

ACTS 10:21

ACTS 10:21

We left Peter on the roof having been told in his vision to go down and depart with those seeking him on the porch...

BYZ –
καταβας δε πετρος προς τους ανδρας ειπεν
having come down Peter before the men he said:

ιδου εγω ειμι ον ζητειτε
"Behold - I am whom you are seeking.

τις η αιτια δι ην παρεστε
What the cause through which you arrived?"

Peter came down before the men and said:
"Behold, I am the one you are seeking.
What is the reason you are here?"

In looser English, we might write: "What brings you here?" It would still be fully literal, without being what I call trans-literal... So also would be: "Why are you here?"

Arsenios