[B-Greek] John 6:27

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Mar 5 05:47:13 EST 2003


At 7:19 PM -0500 3/4/03, <bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca> wrote:
>>
>> From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>> Date: 2003/03/03 Mon PM 07:26:07 GMT-05:00
>> To: <bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca>
>> CC: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] John 6:27
>>
>> At 6:36 PM -0500 3/3/03, <bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca> wrote:
>> >Hi, B-Greekers;
>> >The last clause of John 6:27 reads; TOUTON GAR hO PATHR ESFRAGISEN hO
>> >QEOS. It is quite clear that hO PATHR and hO QEOS belong together. What is
>> >the reason that ESFRAGISEN is inserted here,(or hO PATHR pushed forward,
>> >or hO QEOS pushed back, whatever the case may be). Thank you.
>>
>> A response to this really requires, I think, that we envision the whole
>> passage and grasp that the antecedent of TOUTON is hO hUIOS TOU ANQRWPOU:
>> ERGAZESQE MH THN BRWSIN THN APOLLUMENHN ALLA THN BRWSIN THN MENOUSAN EIS
>> ZWHN AIWNION, hHN hO hUIOS TOU ANQRWPOU hUMIN DWSEI; TOUTON GAR hO PATHR
>> ESFRAGISEN hO QEOS.
>>
>> Here TOUTON is "the Son of Man" and it is Jesus, speaking directly of
>> himself and his own authoritative status. My own idiomatic version in
>> English of this would be: "For HE is the one whom the Father has set his
>> seal upon, that is to say, GOD has done it." I persist in this as yet
>> unshaken notion, Iver to the contrary notwithstanding, that there is
>> emphasis in the final position. One might argue that hO QEOS is appositive
>> to hO PATHR, but in my opinion a noun or adjective indicated as attributive
>> by the article serves very much the same function as an appositive, as TOUS
>> ANDRAS TOUS MEGALOUS: "the men, the big ones."
>
>Thanks Carl.
>Is there a stronger emphasis on hO QEOS in -hO PATHR ESFRAGISEN hO QEOS-
>then if it had said -hO PATHR hO QEOS ESFRAGISEN?

I personally am inclined to think so--i.e. that separation from hO PATHR by
the verb ESFRAGISEN throws hO QEOS into greater prominence (perhaps that's
the wrong word, if "prominence" be taken to mean "frontedness": maybe I
should say greater "eminence"). The sense seems to me to become, as a
result of the phrasing, "This is the one upon whom the Father has set his
seal, namely God."
-- 

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


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