Acts 7:17 w`molo,ghsen {B}

The verb ovmnu,ein (ovmnu,nai) is used frequently throughout the Septuagint to render [b;v'. On the other hand, o`mologei/n and evpagge,lein are used infrequently in the Septuagint (o`mologei/n occurs a total of 14 times and evpagge,lein occurs 11 times; neither verb appears in the Pentateuch or the historical books). It is probable, therefore, that in the present passage scribes substituted w;mosen for one of the other two verbs. Furthermore, since the verb o`mologei/n acquired a technical meaning in the early church (“to make one’s confession”), 158 there was added reason for copyists to alter it here. The verb evphggei,lato may have arisen as an echo of the previous th/j evpaggeli,aj.


158 On the semantics of o`mologei/n, see Vernon H. Neufeld, The Earliest Christian Confessions (Leiden and Grand Rapids, 1963), pp. 13—20.

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Old Testament