John 5:13

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Dec 31 14:44:55 EST 2002


At 1:49 PM -0500 12/31/02, <bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca> wrote:
>Hi, everyone.
>The second half of John 5:13 reads "hO DE GAR IHSOUS EXENEUSEN OCLOU ONTOS
>EN TWi TOPWi.
>Does this mean that Jesus withdrew from the crowd that was at that place,
>or withdrew into the crowd, or withdrew because of the crowd.
>The last one seems most likely to me for if I translate it literally it
>reads something like - for Jesus withdrew, a crowd being in the place-.
>The reason I was questioning it is the genitive case of OCLOU ONTOS.

There's no DE in the passage (that would be impossible, since GAR must
always be in second position in a clause).

OCLOU ONTOS EN TWi TOPWi is a genitive absolute, which functions as a sort
of adverbial modifier to EXENEUSEN but can be understood in a causal or
temporals sense, "... inasmuch as Jesus had left (the scene), there being a
throng in the place (= because there was a throng/while there was a throng
... )."
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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