genitive in John 1:3

Barry Hofstetter nebarry at earthlink.net
Fri Dec 13 08:23:55 EST 2002



----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Dewus" <dewus at bluemarble.net>
To: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 8:46 PM
Subject: [b-greek] genitive in John 1:3


> John 1:3 reads, PANTA DI AUTOU EGENETO...was wondering why
> the genitive AUTOU is used but the translation is him; same with KAI
> CWRIS  AUTOU EGENETO later; thanks.
>
> Mike Dewus

Mike, the pronoun is genitive because it is the object of the preposition DIA,
which takes the genitive when denoting instrumentality.  In English, "through"
takes the objective "him" not the possessive form "his."

Since the immediate antecedent of the pronoun is LOGOS, I have often wondered if
translating it with the impersonal pronoun in English would better capture the
force, as the author builds up to the person of Christ in the incarnation in
John 1:14ff.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Adjunct Professor, CUTS
http://home.earthlink.net/~nebarry
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