Acts 1:18 and a question of usage (λάσκω)

Οὗτος μὲν οὖν ἐκτήσατο χωρίον ἐκ μισθοῦ τῆς ἀδικίας, καὶ πρηνὴς γενόμενος ἐλάκησεν μέσος, καὶ ἐξεχύθη πάντα τὰ σπλάγχνα αὐτοῦ.

Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his unjust deed, and falling headfirst he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.

This is a vivid and rather horrifying description of Judas's end; it is the subject of much discussion, which the reader can find at the biblehub.com site, under 'Commentary' for Acts 1:18. 

That οὗτος refers to Judas must be inferred from the context of previous verses. 

The next ten

Here we have 

more particles and conjunctions

γάρ

ὅτι

οὐ

μή

another preposition:

 ἐκ

two more sets of pronouns:

οὗτος, αὕτη, τοῦτο  (near demonstrative - 'this, these')

ὅς, ἥ, ὅ  (relative pronoun - 'who/m, which')

The ten most common words in the New Testament

In some ways, although knowing these words is essential for understanding, they are less helpful than one might think.  The 10 most common words in the NT include 

the article:

ὁ, ἡ, τό

several pronoun sets:

αὐτός, αὐτή, αὐτό

σύ, ὑμεῖς

ἐγώ, ἡμεῖς

two conjunctions or particles:

δέ

καί

two prepositions:

εἰς

ἐν

two verbs:

εἰμί - 'I am'

λέγω - 'I say'

and no 'regular' nouns.

Many of these ten have numerous forms, of course: the article by itself (with approximately 20,000 occurrences) has 17 different spellings, parsed in 24 possible ways.  

Why the difference?  Because - for example - τό can be either the neuter singular nominative or neuter singular accusative, τῶν can be genitive plural in any gender, and so on.  All the possible spellings of the article are used in the NT.

Not to mention the plethora of irregular verb forms seen with εἰμί and λέγω.  

The next ten words in frequency include two nouns, one of them proper.  We'll look at those ten next time.

 

 

Acts 1:17, part 2: verbs ending in -άνω

 Here's the verse again:

ὅτι κατηριθμημένος ἦν ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ ἔλαχεν τὸν κλῆρον τῆς διακονίας ταύτης

for numbered he was among us, and he obtained a share of this ministry

The form ἔλαχεν is 3-S, aorist active indicative of the verb λαγχάνω, 'I cast lots', 'I obtain by lot', 'I have a share', and so on.  This verb is known from Homer down, but is seen only four times in the New Testament, so we don't get an extensive look at the possible meanings there.