Question
I do have a question about Acts 15:5,
δεῖ περιτέμνειν αὐτοὺς παραγγέλλειν τε τηρεῖν τὸν νόμον Μωϋσέως.
In the above verse there are three infinitives. The first two have no copulative between them, but the third has the copulative τε separating it from the first two. δεῖ appears to govern not the closer infinitive, but the more distant infinitive, which is unnatural. This would seem to be so from the context, as it makes the most sense: “It is necessary to command them to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses” rather than “It is necessary to circumcise them to command and to keep the law of Moses.”
There does not seem to be a grammatical reason to prefer the former translation, only the contextual reason. Am I missing something?
Response
There are two Greek constructions that are not intuitive to the English speaker
δεῖ and the it-cleft
the postpositive τε and what it coordinates.
It is necessary to circumcise them and order them to keep the law of Moses.
They must be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.
The direct discourse δεῖ takes a compound infinitive subject, the first two infinitives. The third infinitive is not coordinated and not a dependent of δεῖ.
The first two infinitives are the compound subject of δεῖ, and the third infinitive is the indirect discourse object of the second infinitive (and is not coordinated).
The English translation uses the it-cleft, but the Greek does not.
To circumcise them and order them to keep the law of Moses is binding.
Even though τηρεῖν may be semantically regarded as a subject of δεῖ (it is necessary for them to keep), it is intermediated by παραγγέλλειν, (it is necessary to command them to keep) which is its syntactical head, because of the exact point that Luke is communicating (the kinds of requirements that the Judaizers thought were to be given as instructions to proselytes to Judeo-Christianity). The Temple still stood and they were not yet aware of the break with the Old Covenant that the incarnation caused due to the completion/termination of the animal sacrifice.
The enclitic τε is a postpositive coordinating conjunction for the two subject infinitives but does not go between them because it is postpositive and goes in the second position of the second subject (its matrix), which it coordinates with the first subject. τε has nothing to do with the third infinitive. If it coordinated the third infinitive τηρεῖν, it would follow it. The sentence is completely regular and unequivocal. There is no other way to say it with τε, and there is no other possible valid interpretation option for it either. I do not see any variation among the translators in BibleHub on what is coordinated. If Luke had used the optional καί instead of τε it would have gone between the first two infinitives as in English and it would have seemed natural and intuitive. The trick for the English reader of the GNT is to move the τε=and in front of the word that it is behind.
It is common for καί but unusual for τε to coordinate infinitives (9 of the 10 instances of infinitive+τε are in Acts/Luke , and I had not coded any of them in GNT-GC, as opposed to 146 instance of καί+infinitive and 5 instances of infinitive+δέ.). δέ is a postpositive coordinating conjunction somewhat like τε but much more apt to coordinate participles and finite verbs and not enclitic. τε is the most common word for “both” with infinitives (twice as common as καί), but δέ is not so used with infinitives. δέ often has an adversative flavor like ἀλλά.
Some frequencies:
καί (9161, 75%)
δέ (2792, 23%)
τε (215, 2%)
All 3 coordinating conjunctions have four functions:
coordinating conjunction 66%
main conjunction 24%
adverbial also/even 9%
both 1%.