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NASB | Acts 16:34 And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 16:34 Then he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, since he had believed in God with his entire family [accepting with joy what had been made known to them about the Christ]. |
Bible Question:
A matter related to Acts 16:34 v.34c refers to 'having believed'. Does this refer to the jailor or the household? I know that both are masculine in the Greek, but I am intrigued by the adverbial phrase 'with his house'. If the latter were to go with 'the house having believed' rather than 'he exulted with his house', would one not expect a nominative? Can you shed some light on this? I would find either explanation acceptable on theological ground, but grammatically I wonder if my understanding is correct. Grammatically speaking, did the whole house rejoice because the jailor believed or did the jailor rejoice, the house having believed? |
Bible Answer: Greetings Dilusc! I consulted the works of A. T. Robertson and he contends that either reading is possible grammatically. What we have is a Aorist, Middle, Indicative, 3rd Person, Singular - Adverb - Perfect, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular. Since there are two verbs on either side of the adverb, the adverb can grammatically be associated with either verb. If one speaks of probability though, I would say that the adverb most likely goes with the verb 'rejoice', simply because it is the main verb of the clause. Thus, the clause would read: "...having believed in God, he rejoiced with his whole family." Or, "...He rejoiced with his whole family because he had believed in God." As you mentioned though, either reading would work. Some translation even put the phrase 'with whole family' at the end of the sentence so as to associate it with both verbal ideas. I hope this helps, but there simply isn't any hard rule for this situation. Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Acts 16:34 | Author | ||
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DILUSC | ||
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Morant61 | ||
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Derdan | ||
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DILUSC |