Repeated Feet in Acts 4/5
[Trivia: Who were the first 5 winners of American Idol?]
One quirk of Greek, that I’ve maybe mentioned before, is that since possessives can be used after their object rather than before them, you can repeat phrases with changed possession but wind up with more consecutive repeated words than in English.
For example. Acts 4 (ESV) ends, and Acts 5 begins:
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.
(Emphases added.)
There’s actually some variety in the prepositions used, although they don’t really contain a different in meaning. I suspect that the variation is employed just to avoid a repetition that would sound bad—although I note that the final product includes an AB/AB pattern. The first and third uses have “παρὰ / para”, while the second and fourth use “πρὸς / pros”:
παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τῶν ἀποστόλων
πρὸς τοὺς πόδας τῶν ἀποστόλων.
παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τῶν ἀποστόλων
πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ
(At least, it’s a pattern according to the text in my Fourth Revised Edition, UBS. The Greek text hosted online at Perseus only has one instance of πρὸς.)
This is interesting because Luke, writing Acts, is clearly playing on a theme here by repeating the phrase of “at [their] feet.” It’s not easy to miss in English, but the increase in words repeated verbatim makes it even harder to miss in the original. I’m not sure how far it’s warranted to take this imagery—that Ananias and Sapphire, desiring the reputation of having given all, wind up having actually given all with the same imagery of being at the apostles’ feet—but Luke is using the language to some deliberate point.
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