I have a question about demorantis in that opening sentence to the Vercelli Acts of Peter. This version of the Acts of Peter is strange because the first three chapters are not devoted to Peter at all but Paul. It is translated as 'sojourning' in the standard English translation:Pauli tempus demorantis Romae et multos confirmantis in fide
The implication here is whether Paul actually went to Rome proper or merely had a 'stopover' at the ancient equivalent of an airport. We've all made the joke before "Oh Amsterdam, I've been there ... well almost, I had a stopover last year." Now I am not suggesting that this was a day-long stopover. Ancient travel was different. But the question Meinhardus brings up is whether Paul was originally on his way to Spain and then merely spent some time at Ostia, the port city of Rome, or whether he went all the way to the heart of Rome and then came back to Ostia. I tend to see this as confirmation of an Ostian stopover. The reason is that there is no mention of travel to and from anywhere and the possible implication of demorantis meaning something like delay, detained or stopover.At the time when Paul was sojourning in Rome and confirming many in the faith, it came also to pass that one by name Candida, the wife of Quartus that was over the prisons, heard Paul and paid heed to his words and believed. And when she had instructed her husband also and he believed, Quartus suffered Paul to go whither he would away from the city: to whom Paul said: If it be the will of God, he will reveal it unto me. And after Paul had fasted three days and asked of the Lord that which should be profitable for him, he saw a vision, even the Lord saying unto him: Arise, Paul, and become a physician in thy body (i.e. by going thither in person) to them that are in Spain.
He therefore, having related to the brethren what God had commanded, nothing doubting, prepared himself to set forth from the city. But when Paul was about to depart, there was great weeping throughout all the brotherhood, because they thought that they should see Paul no more, so that they even rent their clothes. For they had in mind also how that Paul had oftentimes contended with the doctors of the Jews and confuted them, saying: Christ, upon whom your fathers laid hands, abolished their sabbaths and fasts and holy-days and circumcision, and the doctrines of men and the rest of the traditions he did abolish. But the brethren lamented (and adjured) Paul by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he should not be absent above a year, saying: We know thy love for thy brethren; forget not us when thou art come thither, neither begin to forsake us, as little children without a mother. And when they besought him long with tears, there came a sound from heaven, and a great voice saying: Paul the servant of God is chosen to minister all the days of his life: by the hands of Nero the ungodly and wicked man shall he be perfected before your eyes. And a very great fear fell upon the brethren because of the voice which came from heaven: and they were confirmed yet more in the faith.
The only other example I see is Tertullian's use of the terminology where it is translated in English as lingering essentially:
What Tertullian is describing here is apparently developed in the 1641 trial of Gabriel of Granada. His Judaizing practices were identified because he maintained a fast set to the appearance of the evening star:There is, I believe, a Ninevitan suspension of business! A Jewish fast, at all events, is universally celebrated; while, neglecting the temples, throughout all the shore, in every open place, they continue long to send prayer up to heaven. And, albeit by the dress and ornamentation of mourning they disgrace the duty, still they do affect a faith in abstinence, and sigh for the arrival of the long-lingering [demorantis] evening star to sanction (their feeding).
Similarly Mayor Gonzalez of Herrera in 1484 confessed to practicing the fast this way:and on this occasion and on many others his said mother told him and taught him how in the month of September the fast of the great day must be kept in observance of the said law, bathing on the eve of the day previous and putting on clean clothing and supping on fish and vegetables, and not flesh (meat) and that wax candles must be lighted and put on a clean cloth, and that on that night the prayers of the said law must be recited without going to sleep until after midnight ; and that all the following day they had to go without eating until night when the evening star came forth ; and that then they must sup on fish and vegetables and not meat ; and that they must ask forgiveness one of another, and those who had quarreled become friends again. And in conformity with this, this confessant made the said fast of the great day in the month of September of last year with his said mother Dona Maria de Rivera and with his grandmother Dona Blanca and his aunts Margaret.
So demorantis means something like 'delayed.' But could it mean 'stopover'?likewise I fasted and observed it as best as I could , refraining from spinning and from doing other things , not eating or drinking the entire day until the evening star had emerged.
What complicates the passage in the Vercelli Acts is that the structuring of the first sentence doesn't seem usual in Latin. More like Greek sentence structure.