EX hAIMATWN (John 1:13)

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Sat Jan 22 05:09:24 EST 2000


To: Bill Ross,

JBG: << That ANER sometimes means "husband" is indisputable, but that 
"husband" is the only meaning the word bore, as Bill seems to imply here, 
(or even its most prominent sense -- to give Bill the benefit of the doubt) 
is something that the evidence of usage belies. >>

BR: << My point can be better made like this: The KJV reads "..not of man" 
and if we were going from English to Greek we would choose ANQRWPOS because 
that is the generic term for "human" that is
the way the KJV read. But the Koine choice of ANER is indicative of a male, 
or husband. So a better translation would be "...not of a husband" or "not 
of a male" but it is misleading to translate it "...not of man" or "...not 
of a human being". >>

FWIW ... I for one would find "man" to be a totally appropriate translation 
for ANDROS here at John 1:13. And I would personally regard "husband" as 
here misleading. I would also point out that the Greek text reads: OUDE EK 
QELHMATOS ANDROS "nor of man's will" (similarly the KJV reads: "nor of the 
will of man"; Tyndale had "nor yet of the will of man"). If I'm not 
mistaken, even in the 17th century (the KJV was published in 1611) the 
English term "man" was often used to refer to "an adult human male," and it 
still retains such meaning even today. As such, the term seems to me to be 
completely appropriate to translate ANDROS here at John 1:13.

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com
FWIW: I'm neither a clergy-person, nor an academic (and I have no post-grad 
degrees).




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