Acts 2:39

Last summer, I found a note from two years previous that I'd forgotten to write about here.  I read Acts 2 and noticed a small instance of polysyndeton in verse 39:

"For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." [ESV]

The repetition of "and" lends a slight sense of this multitude ("all" and "everyone").

Psalm 43:3

When I read Psalm 43 in German, I noticed that, in a way, verse 3 anticipates the first part of John 1.

Sende dein Licht und deine Wahrheit, daß sie mich leiten und bringen zu deinem heiligen Berg und zu deiner Wohnung

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! [ESV]

This request begins to be fulfilled in John 1, particularly in verse 9, where light and truth are mentioned together:  "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."

John 14:2

I noticed a small feature in John 14:2 while following along in the Daily Dose of Latin:

in domo Patris mei mansiones multae sunt si quo minus dixissem vobis quia vado parare vobis locum

In the NKJV, this is:

"In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you."

Both of these translations exhibit alliteration (in the phrases "mansiones multae" and "many mansions"), and the repetition involved in this effect lends a slight sense of this large amount.

1 Kings 12:10, 2 Chronicles 10:10

In reading the NIV, I found a significant pleonasm in 2 Chronicles 10:10:

The young men who had grown up with him [Rehoboam] replied, "Tell the people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter' - tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.'"

"Tell" unnecessarily appears a second time, also in the Hebrew:

יְדַבְּרוּ אִתּוֹ הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר גָּדְלוּ אִתּוֹ לֵאמֹר כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר לָעָם אֲשֶׁר־דִּבְּרוּ אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר אָבִיךָ הִכְבִּיד אֶת־עֻלֵּנוּ וְאַתָּה הָקֵל מֵעָלֵינוּ כֹּה תֹּאמַר אֲלֵהֶם קָֽטָנִּי עָבָה מִמָּתְנֵי אָבִֽי׃

In the following verse, these young men advise Rehoboam to impose a heavier burden on the people, and later he follows their advice.  In a way, the pleonastic "tell" reflects this increase; even in the language that these young men use, there's an abundance.

The parallel passage in 1 Kings 12:10 also contains a pleonasm, although here the two words are distinct in Hebrew:

וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֵלָיו הַיְלָדִים אֲשֶׁר גָּדְלוּ אִתּוֹ לֵאמֹר כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר לָעָם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר דִּבְּרוּ אֵלֶיךָ לֵאמֹר אָבִיךָ הִכְבִּיד אֶת־עֻלֵּנוּ וְאַתָּה הָקֵל מֵעָלֵינוּ כֹּה תְּדַבֵּר אֲלֵיהֶם קָֽטָנִּי עָבָה מִמָּתְנֵי אָבִֽי׃