Q. What is the difference in the use of the dative and accusative of time, as in Acts 13:20, &c.? B.
A. When the dative is used for time, it is always viewed as one whole point or object; when the accusative, it is a space during which. Thus, taking the common reading, judges characterized the period of 450 years, as we hear of them during forty years in the desert. (Ver. 18.) So ἱκανῶ χρνόῳ in Acts 8:11, and Rom. 16:25. Thus τρίτᾑ ἡμέρᾳ and τρίτην ἡμέραν would not have the same force, though in result the sense would be the same. In the first phrase I should think of that one day so characterized. With τρίτν ἠμ. I think of two days elapsed before. In a word the accusative is duration, as the dative is epoch, though in sense running often into one another. Thus, according to the common reading of the dative, in Acts 13:20, the statement would not be during 450 years, but up to, as far as (i.e., counting from the end of the desert). Thus Joshua, elders, and Cushanrishathaim would have to be deducted—say some forty-five years. And the chronology is in no way changed. But then the reading of the more ancient authorities gives a very different sense.