[B-Greek] Accusative in John 2:11

Iver iver_larsen at sil.org
Thu Aug 7 02:53:33 EDT 2003


> At 9:34 AM -0500 8/6/03, Rob Matlack wrote:
> >TAUTHN EPOIHSE THN ARCHN TWN SHMEIWN hO IHSOUS EN KANA THS GALILAIAS
> >I have two questions concerning this first clause of 2:11. First, the NET
> >Bible note
> >reads: "Jesus did this as the first of his miraculous signs. The sentence
> >in Greek
> >involves an object-complement construction. The force can be
> either 'Jesus
> >did this
> >as,' or possibly 'Jesus made this to be,' The latter translation accents
> >not only
> >Jesus' power but his sovereignty too. Cf. also 4:54." I can see how this
> >could be
> >construed as and object-compliment construction, but could it not also be
> >a simple
> >appositive, so the NIV and ESV.
> >
> >Second, some manuscripts omit the THN before ARCHN. Is there any
> significant
> >difference in meaning? Does the presence of the article lend itself more
> >to the simple
> >accusative understanding?
>
> I think you are raising more a question of the grammar of English
> translation than of understanding the Greek text: TAUTHN THN ARCHN is a
> unit and functions as the object of EPOIHSE--if that weren't so the TAUTHN
> wouldn't be feminine.

I think I agree, but does this not rule out the object-complement
construction? There is no feminine noun that TAUTHN can refer back to in the
previous sentence, so it presumably refers to ARCHN and mean "this
beginning" (He did this beginning of signs). A normal translation in English
would be different, but that is a translation question. Or is it possible to
suggest: This (beginning) Jesus made as a/the beginning of signs? In this
case, the noun could be without article as the NA reading suggests.

> The reading TAUTHN ARCHN without the article is
> intelligible but violates standard Greek grammar which calls for a
> demonstrative such as hOUTOS always to be in a predicative position, which
> in turn means that the article must appear with the noun.

>From a linguistic point of view this is a somewhat backward explanation. The
article is needed because a demonstrative makes an expression definite and
therefore the article is present when the head noun is present. Whether the
demonstrative appears before or after the noun is a matter of relative
emphasis. I feel that the idea of a "predicative position" is a confusing
way to describe Greek grammar.

John 4:54: TOUTO PALIN DEUTERON SHMEION EPOIHSEN hO IHSOUS

Since no mss has an article here, does this mean:
Jesus did this (sign or thing) as a second sign?
I am not sure what to do with PALIN.

Iver Larsen




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