[B-Greek] John 3:36
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 24 06:34:05 EDT 2003
(cwc) I forward to B-Greek herewith another of those messages that were
apparently intended for the list but, since they weren't addressed quite
correctly, reach administrators as one of the numerous "bounce" messages
from ibiblio.org that come in every single day, usually to be discarded.
Chuck Tripp very clearly has something to say on the not-quite unfinished
business of this thread:
==============
From: "Chuck Tripp" <ctripp at ptialaska.net>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] John 3:36
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 22:47:41 -0800
I went a few days and noticed a topic of considerable interest to me came
and went (more or less). If I could offer some comments which I think would
be appropriate for the list.
I was very much intrigued by the discrepancy in how Jn 3:36 was translated,
disobey (NASB) vs not believe (KJV) vs NIV (reject), even more so when I
discovered the Greek to be APEIQEW a word which I have understood to mean
disobey.
Since then in my reading I have taken note of how PEIQW and APEIQEW are used
in the GNT, LXX and outside the Bible (Herototus, Arrian and Xenophon),
developing a list of some 20 different passages where this word or
derivatives are used. I finally came to following thought/question.
It seems to me almost artificial to ask say "which is it, to not believe or
reject, or to not believe or to disobey?"
If we were to ask John the evangelist to clarify the question for us, what
would the question look like in Greek? Like this perhaps:
W IWANNA, APEIQW H APEIQW;
Are we perhaps cutting our distinctions a little to fine to say it means one
of the three ways it is translated, but not the others. Both the concepts
of 'not believe' and 'disobey' fall within the range of meaning of APEIQEW.
I realize that context can push the meaning to one end or the other of the
range, but I wonder if John or his audience would have understood one of
those meanings to the exclusion of the other.
This is one of the fascinating things about languages is how different
concepts in one language tend to merge in another or going the other way one
word in one language tends to split into two or more in another (e.g.
ser/estar in spanish vs 'to be' in English)
My two cents.
Another passage worth considering is Deut 9:24 in LXX where similar contrast
is made APEIQEW and PISTEUW.
Chuck Tripp
Kodiak, Alaska
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