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The Meaning of ἔχοντες χάριν πρός in Acts 2.47: Resolving Some Recent Confusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2018

Joshua Noble
Joshua Noble*
Affiliation:
10,000 Ojai Rd, Santa Paula, CA 93060, USA. Email: jnoble@thomasaquinas.edu
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Abstract

This article addresses a debate over the proper interpretation of the phrase ἔχοντες χάριν πρὸς ὅλον τὸν λαόν in Acts 2.47. Several authors have been persuaded by T. David Andersen's argument that this expression means that the Jerusalem community was ‘showing favour towards all the people’ rather than ‘having favour with all the people’, as it has usually been translated. Andersen's evidence is much more ambiguous than he suggests, however, and I present three more precise parallels to the phrase in Acts 2.47 that strongly support the standard translation.

Keywords

Acts of the Apostlesχάριςπρόςsummarysyntax
Type
Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 64 , Issue 4 , October 2018 , pp. 573 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

1 This and all subsequent biblical translations are from the NRSV.

2 The Jerusalem community is presented as the recipients of the people's favour in the ESV, HCSB, KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT and RSV, as well as in German (Hoffnung für Alle, Elberfelder 1905, Luther Bibel 1984, Neue Genfer Übersetzung, Schlachter 2000) and French (La Bible du Semeur, Louis Segond, Nouvelle Edition de Genève, Segond 21) translations.

3 Andersen, T. D., ‘The Meaning of ΕΧΟΝΤΕΣ ΧΑΡΙΝ ΠΡΟΣ in Acts 2,47’, NTS 34 (1988) 604–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 608 does not see such a tension, arguing that the context equally supports either reading, but others such as Pervo, R. I., Acts (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009) 94Google Scholar n. 57 acknowledge Andersen's ‘strong linguistic argument’ while also judging that the context supports the contrary interpretation.

5 Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 604.

6 Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 607. The community-as-recipients interpretation is upheld by Bruce, F. F., Commentary on the Book the Acts (NICNT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954) 133Google Scholar; Haenchen, E., The Acts of the Apostles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971) 193Google Scholar; Schneider, G., Die Apostelgeschichte, vol. ii (HThKNT 5; Freiburg: Herder, 1980) 289Google Scholar; Barrett, C. K., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1994) 1.171Google Scholar; Fitzmyer, J. A., The Acts of the Apostles (AB 31; New York: Doubleday, 1998) 272Google Scholar; Bock, D. L., Acts (BECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007) 154Google Scholar; Keener, C. S., Acts: An Exegetical Commentary: Introduction and 1:1–2:47 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012) 1073Google Scholar; Holladay, C. R., Acts (NTL; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2016) 108Google Scholar.

7 Cheetham, F. P., ‘Acts ii. 47: ἔχοντες χάριν πρὸς ὅλον τὸν λαόν’, ExpTim 74 (1963) 214–15Google Scholar; Gamba, G. G., ‘Significato letterale e portata dottrinale dell'inciso participiale di Atti 2,47b: ἔχοντες χάριν πρὸς ὅλον τὸν λαόν’, Salesianum 43 (1981) 45–70Google Scholar. Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 610 n. 1 cites Cheetham but does not mention Gamba's work. I will concentrate on the articles of Cheetham and Andersen, since they have been much more influential. Gamba does offer one additional major argument, that the Vulgate's translation of Acts 2.47 (habentes gratiam ad omnem plebem) supports the people-as-recipients reading. As Gamba himself documents, however, commentators on the Vulgate often interpreted the Latin phrase as meaning that the community found favour with the people (‘Significato letterale’, 60 n. 32). As for other ancient evidence, the only extant patristic commentary on this verse of which I am aware, that of John Chrysostom, reads Acts 2.47 as stating that the community was the recipient of the people's favour (Hom. Act. 7.3).

8 Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 608. Cheetham, ‘Acts ii. 47’, 215 says that a community-as-recipients translation ‘would fit in perfectly well’ with the context.

9 Cheetham, ‘Acts ii. 47’, 214–15; Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 607.

10 Cheetham, ‘Acts ii. 47’, 214 observes that the LSJ ‘cite[s] two or three instances of this usage in classical Greek, but do[es] not refer to any koine or New Testament passage’, and Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 609 points out that ‘none of the examples cited actually uses the word χάρις’ and that ‘there is also a time difference, in that the examples cited by Liddell and Scott date from the fifth to the second centuries bc’.

11 Marguerat, D., Les Actes des apôtres (1–12) (CNT 5a; Geneva: Labor et Fides, 2007) 108–9Google Scholar; Parsons, M. C., Acts (Paideia; Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008) 49Google Scholar. Others who cite Andersen and take up his interpretation include Blue, B. B., ‘The Influence of Jewish Worship on Luke's Presentation of the Early Church’, Witness to the Gospel: The Theology of Acts (ed. Marshall, I. H. and Peterson, D.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998) 473–97Google Scholar, at 486 n. 43; Thompson, R. P., Keeping the Church in its Place: The Church as Narrative Character in the Book of Acts (New York: T&T Clark, 2006) 58Google Scholar n. 127; Kuecker, A., The Spirit and the ‘Other’: Social Identity, Ethnicity and Intergroup Reconciliation in Luke-Acts (LNTS 444; York, London/New: T&T Clark International, 2011) 133Google Scholar n. 32; Chambers, A., Exemplary Life: A Theology of Church Life in Acts (Nashville: B & H, 2012) 80Google Scholar n. 87.

12 BDAG, ‘πρός’, 874; ‘χάρις’, 1079.

13 Pesch, R., Die Apostelgeschichte (EKKNT 5; Zurich: Benzinger; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1986) 132Google Scholar; Pervo, Acts, 94–5; Peterson, D., The Acts of the Apostles (Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans/Nottingham: Apollos, 2009) 164Google Scholar.

14 Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 608–9.

15 For the repetitions in and relationship between the three summaries, see Co, M. A., ‘The Major Summaries in Acts: Acts 2,42–47; 4,32–35; 5,12–16: Linguistic and Literary Relationship’, ETL 68 (1992) 67–81Google Scholar.

16 Cheetham, ‘Acts ii. 47’, 214–15.

17 This is a standard construction with χάρις; cf. Exod 33.12 LXX; Plutarch, Ag. Cleom. 10.2; Herm. Mand. 33.5; 42.1.

18 In general, see BDF 239 (1); BDAG, ‘πρός’, 875; Bortone, P., Greek Prepositions from Antiquity to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) 183CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For NT examples, see Mark 1.33; 9.19; Luke 9.41.

19 Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 607.

20 Andersen, ‘Meaning’, 609.

21 Begg, C., ed., Judean Antiquities Books 5–7 (Flavius Josephus Translation and Commentary 4; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2005) 122Google Scholar.

22 Cf. the translation of Yonge, C. D., The Works of Philo Judaeus, vol. ii (London: H. G. Bohn, 1854–5) 25Google Scholar: ‘for the sake of gaining favour in the eyes of the moderate and virtuous’. Andersen cites Colson and Whitaker's translation without giving any explanation as to why he understands the direction of favour to be reversed.

23 While Cheetham and Andersen fail to note this parallel, Gamba, ‘Significato letterale’, 58–9 n. 29 recognises its potential to serve as powerful counter-evidence to his argument and attempts to deal with this text in a long footnote. Admitting ‘l'affinità di formulazione delle due espressioni’, Gamba nevertheless argues that the sense of χάρις is different in the two texts, being objective in Dem. 7.2 and subjective in Acts 2.47. As such, he does not think that the passage from Plutarch aids in understanding the same construction in Acts. This dismissal in unsatisfactory for three reasons: (1) the identification of χάρις in Dem. 7.2 as objective is questionable and disagrees with the LSJ's analysis of this text; (2) even if χάρις is objective here, the direction of the potential favour is still relevant; (3) the two passages from the Cyranides that are discussed below are clearly subjective and therefore immune to Gamba's objection.

24 A sample of translations: ‘bei dem Volke’ (Büchsenschütz, B., Plutarch's Demosthenes und Cicero (Berlin: Weidmann, 1857) 20Google Scholar); ‘he could not yet find any acceptance with the people’ (Clough, A. H., Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1876) 202Google Scholar); ‘il ne trouvait pas grâce devant le peuple’ (Flacelière, R. and Chambry, E., Vies: Démosthène, Ciceron (Collection des Universités de France; Paris: Belles Lettres, 1976) 22Google Scholar); ‘he is not in favour with the people’ (Holden, H. A., Plutarch's Life of Demosthenes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1893) 61Google Scholar); ‘he was unpopular with the assembly’ (Lintott, A. W., Plutarch: Demosthenes and Cicero (Clarendon Ancient History; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar); ‘he had not found favour with the people’ (Waterfield, R., Hellenistic Lives (Oxford World Classics; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) 86Google Scholar).

25 Faraone, C. A., Ancient Greek Love Magic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) 121Google Scholar dates the Cyranides to the first century ce, and it is placed in the first or second century by Waegeman, M., Amulet and Alphabet: Magical Amulets in the First Book of Cyranides (Amsterdam: Gieben, 1987) 7Google Scholar and J. Scarborough, in the OCD’s entry ‘Cyranides’, 405. On the other hand, Bain, D., ‘“Treading Birds”: An Unnoticed Use of πατέω (Cyranides 1.10.27, 1.19.9)’, Owls to Athens: Essays on Classical Subjects Presented to Sir Kenneth Dover (ed. Craik, E. M.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1990) 295–304Google Scholar, at 296 endorses the fourth-century ce dating by Alpers, K., ‘Untersuchungen zum griechischen Physiologus und den Kyraniden’, Vestigia Bibliae 6 (1984) 13–84Google Scholar.

26 The translations of both passages from the Cyranides are my own.

27 I am aware of one other instance of the ἔχειν χάριν πρός + acc. construction. In his Politics, Aristotle uses the analogy of a nose that ‘is still beautiful and agreeable to look at’ (ἔτι καλὴ καὶ χάριν ἔχουσα πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν, 1309b25–6 (trans. Hett)). This is a more removed parallel than those presented in the main text, since the object of πρός is not a person or persons, but the general meaning is in agreement with that in the other three examples: the subject that has χάριν is viewed favourably by others.