The Epistolary Plural in 1 John 1:4?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jan 4 12:09:54 EST 2000
At 11:41 AM -0500 1/4/00, Ilvgrammta at aol.com wrote:
>Dear B-Greekers,
>
>1 John 1:4 reads:
>
>KAI TAUTA GRAFOMEN hHMEIS hINA hH XARA hHMWN Hi PEPLHRWMENH.
>
>Does John use the epistolary plural (GRAFOMEN, hHMEIS) here?
>
>Thanks in advance,
I would think so and in fact I can't imagine an alternative to this view;
certainly he does not list at the outset additional senders (as Paul
frequently does, even when Paul writes in the first person singular). Of
course 1 John is a treatise or sermon rather than a real letter, but it
uses the literary form of the letter as was commonly done in antiquity for
short treatises, and the first-plural or "editorial" we is pretty common.
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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