John 3:31

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Oct 22 06:38:03 EDT 2002


>
> On greek John 3:31: EK THS GHS LALEI
>
> Generally these words are translated: 'speaks about earthly things' or
> equivalents.

Are they? Which translations are you thinking of?
NIV: "speaks as one from the earth"

The KJV and RSV say "speaks of the earth". That is ambiguous and unclear in
English because of its literalness, but I expect most people would take it
to mean speaking about the earth. Maybe that is why GNB says "speaks about
earthly matters."

>
> So, the greek text may not be translated 'he speaks about earthly things'
> but 'he speaks from an earthly point of view', 'he speaks from a worldly
> (terrenal) position', 'he speaks accordingly to the vision of this world'
> and so on...
>
> Are you agreeing with my assertion? Do you think I'm right?
>
Yes, I would agree with you.

Iver Larsen




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