pragmatics at the well

Kevin L. Barney klbarney at yahoo.com
Thu May 4 12:40:09 EDT 2000


On Jn. 4:17, I think Jesus moves up ANDRA to the first word in quoting the 
woman at the well for emphasis.  Something like "well you said a HUSBAND I 
have not, because you have already had five husbands and the man you're 
living with now is not a husband."  I.e., since Jesus is about to go into 
detail making an accounting of her husbands, past and present, I sense a 
certain ironic tone in his switching the word order here.

On v. 29, I like the suggestion of the NET annotation.  It says that, yes, 
MHTI normally presupposes a negative response, which doesn't seem to fit 
here, so perhaps the woman is using a bit of reverse psychology to gain a 
hearing for her claims, which, due to her background, would normally not be 
taken seriously.  Something like "this man cannot be the messiah, can he?"

Kevin L. Barney
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
klbarney at yahoo.com



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