John 17

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Sun Sep 22 02:40:43 EDT 2002


>
> I have recently been discussing with a person the way in which John 17:3
> has been translated. The response from him was rather surprising and I
> would welcome any comments.
> The Verse in question is . John 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they
> might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
> His handling of it was to remove the sections between the commas and read
> the verse then to replace the section removed and remove the next section.
> We would then have  .  "And this is life eternal whom thou hast sent."
> Then "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the
> only true God whom thou hast sent"
> And finally "And this  Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent"
> With my limited understanding of Greek I cannot see that this is a 'legal'
> way of looking at the verses.

No, it is not. But you point to an interesting formula that is only found in
John's writings in the GNT as far as I can tell. It is one of the
characteristics and John's style of Greek. The formula is

hOUTOS(t) ESTIN t hINA (definition)

The fronted (here used kataphorically) demonstrative hOUTOS(t) is linked to
t and has the same gender and number. The fronting serves to highlight the
important topic of t. The hINA introduces a definition or short description
of what t is or means.
An idiomatic translation into English could be:

What does t mean? It means that (definition)

or: t is this: (definition)

Let me list the 6 occurrences of the formula in the GNT:

JHN 6:29 TOUTO ESTIN TO ERGON TOU QEOU hINA
	PISTEUHTE EIS hON APESTEILEN EKEINOS.
What does it mean to do the work(s) of God? It means to believe in the one
he has sent! or:
Doing the work of God means to do this: Believe in the one he has sent!

JHN 15:12 hAUTH ESTIN hH ENTOLH hH EMH hINA
	AGAPATE ALLHLOUS KAQWS HGAPHSA hUMAS.
What is my commandment? It is that you love one another as I have loved you!

JHN 17:3 hAUTH DE ESTIN hH AIWNIOS ZWH hINA
	GINWSKWSIN SE, TON MONON ALHQINON QEON,
	KAI hON APESTELAS, IHSOUN CRISTON.
And what is the eternal life? It is that they know you, the only true God,
and (know) the one you have sent, the Savior Messiah!

1 JHN 3:23 hAUTH ESTIN hH ENTOLH AUTOU hINA
	PISTEUSWMEN TWI ONOMATI TOU hUIOU AUTOU, IHSOU CRISTOU,
	KAI AGAPWMEN ALLHLOUS
What is his commandment? It is that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus
Messiah, and that we love one another!

1 JHN 5:3 hAUTH GAR ESTIN hH AGAPH TOU QEOU hINA
	TAS ENTOLAS AUTOU THRWMEN
For what is it to love God? It is to keep his commandments!

2 JHN 1:6 KAI hAUTH ESTIN hH AGAPH hINA
	PERIPATWMEN KATA TAS ENTOLAS AUTOU
And what does it mean to love? It means to live according to his
commandments!

Iver Larsen
SIL Translation Consultant




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