[B-Greek] John 18:24 APESTEILEN

Pastor Mark Eddy markeddy at adams.net
Tue Apr 22 09:28:38 EDT 2003


You may be asking the wrong question, when you ask about verb tenses. See below.
----- Original Message -----
From: <bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca>
Subject: [B-Greek] John 18:24 APESTEILEN


> I have another question (one I could not find an answer to in the archives).
> In John 18:13 we are told that after his arrest, Jesus was first led to Annas, the father-in -law of
Caiaphas, who was high priest at that time.
> Verses 19-23 tells about the questioning by the high priest.
> And in verse 24 it says;APESTEILEV OUN AUTON hO hANNAS DEDEMENON PROS KAIAFAN TON ARCIEREA.
> When I first read this passage I assumed that the questioning had been done by Annas because that was
were Jesus had been led. It says however that the high priest was doing the questioning. Jesus had not
been led to Caiaphas until verse 24, assuming that this narrative is in chronological order. The NASB, the
RSV, and the NIV translate it that way.

As these translations demonstrate, you are not alone in your understanding that Annas questioned Jesus.
What seems to distract you is "that the high priest was doing the questioning." The solution is that John
calls Annas "high priest" in v. 19 and 22.
Dr. Paul L. Maier writes in his book _First Easter_ (which has been updated in his more recent book _In
the Fullness of Time_, but I have lent out my copy of the latter):
"Jesus was first brought by night into the southwestern Upper City to the house of Annas, who had been
high priest from 6 to 15 A.D. --the pontiff in charge at the time Jesus appeared in the Temple as a young
prodigy. Although deposed from that office by the Romans, Annas continued as the wealthy
power-behind-the-scene in the sacerdotal aristocracy at Jerusalem, since five of his own sons, and now his
son-in-law Caiaphas, eventually succeeded to the high priesthood. It was not only as a mark of respect to
his authority, but possibly also in the nature of a preliminary, lower court hearing that Jesus was first
brought before the patriarch Annas, who could still be called  "high priest," much as ex-governors today
are still called Governor So-and-so out of courtesy."

> The King James version (as well as the Dutch translation of 1637) translates it "Now Annas had sent him
bound unto Caiaphas the high priest". This does solve the problem because now it appears that Jesus was
led to Annas who then sent him to Caiaphas for questioning.

One reason for the different translation of KJV (and Dutch) is that it is based on a different Greek text.
Instead of introducing v. 24 with OUN, the textus receptus has DE. John's most common term to move the
narration along is the somewhat inferrential word OUN (often translated as "so" or "then"). Verses 19,
28,29,33, etc. all start with OUN. So does v. 24 in the N-A text. So the modern translations take v. 24 as
a subsequent action to v. 19-23. But the majority text used by KJV take v. 24 as more of a parenthetical
sentence, introduced by DE ("now" or "but"). It may be that DE crept into the text because some copyists
also though it odd to call Annas "high priest" or they anticipated the DE of verse 25, which does
introduce a section out of historical sequence.

> What I would like to know is if the pluperfect translation (that is what it is, isn't it?) of APESTEILEN
is valid.
> Thank you in advance?
> Bert de Haan, Arthur Ontario.

Mark Eddy
Golden, Illinois



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