Jn 20:22

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Dec 6 19:35:11 EST 1999


At 10:41 AM +1300 12/7/99, N & RJ Hanscamp wrote:
>the term ENEFUSHSEN is normally translated "breathed on them", though it is
>probably more correctly "breathed out".  Most commentators connect it with
>Genesis 2.7, Ezekiel 37.9 and Wisdom 15.11 where God is said to 'breath
>life' into inanimate objects as a part of creation or re-creation.

I'm curious what the justification is supposed to be for understanding
*EN*-EFUSHSEN as "breathed OUT." Does Raymond Brown argue this in fact (my
copy of his commentary is not presently at hand as I write)? or is it an
assumption from the context and an assumption that if he says, "Receive the
Spirit," it can't already be in or on (or--dare I say it?) NEAR them? It
just seems like a perverse way of understanding the force of this prefix.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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