[B-Greek] John 8:31ff
Jody Barnard
jbnard at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Feb 6 09:49:45 EST 2004
Dear b-greekers,
Id be interested to hear your thoughts on this:
John 8:31ff
1) Jesus begins by addressing TOUS PEPISTEUKOTAS AUTWi
IOUDIOUS but later states ZHTEITE ME APOKTEINAI
(v.37). I cannot discern a shift in this passage from
those who believe in him and those who are trying to
kill him; does this mean they are the same people? Am
I missing something?
2) hUMEIS POIEITE TA ERGA TOU PATROS hUMWN (v.41)
Is POIEITE indicative or imperative?
It seems to me that an indicative fits the context
better since an imperative (You must do the works of
your Father) would effectively be saying stop trying
to kill me whereas Jesus doesnt seem to be on the
defensive in this passage and a command to stop trying
to kill him seems unlikely considering his mission was
to die.
However if it is an indicative is it:
1) Sarcastic i.e. he has just made it plain that
they are not doing the works of their father (Abraham)
and he states (sarcastically), yes of course you do
the works of your father.
2) A solemn statement that they do the works of
their father who would later be identified as the
Devil (v.44).
Concerning option 1 I wonder if there are any examples
of Jesus being sarcastic, i.e. would this be out of
character?
Concerning option 2 I can see how this works in a
text, and perhaps the author had this in mind, but
this is primarily a record of a conversation and I
doubt the Jews would get a reference to something
Jesus has not yet said.
Jody Barnard
England
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