John 6:29

David A Bielby dbielby at juno.com
Sun Oct 10 19:11:41 EDT 1999


Thank you for this jewel.  

On Sun, 10 Oct 1999 16:12:11 -0500 "Carl W. Conrad"
<cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu> writes:
> At 3:29 PM -0500 10/10/99, David A Bielby wrote:
> >Jn 6:29b
> >hINA PISTEUHTE EIS hON APESTEILEN EKEINOS
> >
> >I'm translating the conjunction and the Present Active Subjunctive
> >functionally as 'to believe'. My questions are: Is there not a 
> continuous
> >sense in this phrase...and if so, how can we bring that out without 
> being
> >awkward in the translation??  Doesn't it seem that the english 
> tends to
> >lose that continuous state connotation? How can we adjust for that?
> >
> >Could it be translated "to always believe" or something like this?
> 
> Yes, I think you could say that the fact that PISTEUHTE is present 
> "tense"
> means in effec that the believing is continuous--but it could also 
> mean
> that the believing is in its inception: i.e. "so you may begin to 
> believe

I overlooked the inceptive concept. Thanks!  So, would you agree then
that it is incorrect to draw out the assumption that this verb means a
one time experiential believing in. Or, is there really no distinction
between a snapshot of belief and the inceptive?

> in the one whom he sent" or "so you may continue to believe in the 
> one whom
> he sent."
> 
> However, both of these sound rather awkward in English, and my own
> inclination, except when being "hyperliteral" is to stay within the 
> bounds
> of ordinary English idiom, which does not normally make the sort of
> distinction you're suggesting for PISTEUHTE. I don't think it would 
> be
> "always believe" anyway, but rather, "continue to believe." That is 
> to say,
> as I understand the force of the aspect here, it is that action is 
> ongoing
> and that nothing is implied about an end; rather it's a matter of
> open-ended futurity (which has always seemed to me to be what lies 
> at the
> heart of Johannine faith in any case).
> 
> 
> 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/

Thanks again!

David Bielby
Vineyard Christian Fellowship
Bloomington/Normal, Illinois  USA 
dbielby at juno.com        www.bloomington.vineyard.org
Phone: 309-827-8292



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