[B-Greek] some lingustic questions on Jn 7:8

Jeffrey B. Gibson jgibson000 at comcast.net
Tue Jan 27 15:18:21 EST 2004



Jody Barnard wrote:

> Porphyry certainly considers OUK an inconsistency so
> this would seem to rule out the possibility of OUK
> meaning 'not yet.'

I don't have the text of (Jerome's report in Dialogue against Pelagius 2:17 of) the Porphyry charge
available (does anyone?).  But according to Metzger (_The Text of the NT_, p. 202) it was that in the
light of what Jesus is said to do in Jn. 7:10, Jesus' saying "I will not go up to the feats" made him
guilty of "inconstancia ac mutatio",  = indecisiveness  and vacillation not lying.

> Also if the original did read OUPW
> why would anyone change it to OUK?

A very good question, if it is known that in doing so that this would involve making Jesus look, if not
a liar, at least a vacillator.

But if this OUPW was known to have meant OUK, but that, given it's semantic range, that someone might
think it meant "not yet:, the "change"   could have been motivated by a desire to remove any ambiguity..

Yours,

Jeffrey
--

Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon.)

1500 W. Pratt Blvd. #1
Chicago, IL 60626

jgibson000 at comcast.net





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