[B-Greek] IOUDAIOS
reznik1 at juno.com
reznik1 at juno.com
Fri Jan 30 09:09:15 EST 2004
Hi Iver,
Thank you for your reply.
-- "Iver Larsen" <iver_larsen at sil.org> wrote:
> It seems to me that in John's Gospel IOUDAIOS often really means
> Judean and not Jew. Here is a good example:
>
> Jhn 7:1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did
> not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews* sought to kill Him.
> NKJV Copyright 1982 Thomas Nelson
>
> Here we see a contrast between Judeans (who are in Judea) and
> Galileans. Jews lived in both Judea and Galilee, but Judeans
> lived in Judea. Here is another example:
>
> Jhn 11:7 Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to
> Judea again."
> Jhn 11:8 The disciples said to Him, "Rabbi, lately the Jews
> sought to stone You, and are You going there again?"
> NKJV Copyright 1982 Thomas Nelson
>
> Here "the Jews" also can mean Judeans, because the Galileans who
> were around Him at that time were also Jews, but they were not a
> threat for Him.
>
> In these examples the word should definitely mean Judeans from the
> context. And it is very probable that in many other passages with
> not so clear context it means the same. After all, John was a Jew
> himself, and it was he who wrote down Jesus' words that
> "salvation comes from the Jews". Plus, in John's gospel he shows
> Jesus' enemies mostly, if not only, in Judea, and he as Galilean
> himself dislikes proud "spiritual" Judeans. So IOUDAIOI in his
> Gospel seem to be in contrast not only to so called Christians
> (who were also Jews) but also to Galileans.
"I think these are questionable and hurried conclusions based on limited
data."
What is questionable? Do you agree that in my example the word means Judeans and nothing else? In first one Jesus avoids JUDEA because IOUDAIOI sought to kill Him. In the second He is warned not to go to JUDEA because IOUDAIOI just wanted to kill Him.
"It is commonly recognized that John very often uses the term IOUDAIOI in a
restricted sense referring to the Jewish leaders who were opposed to Jesus
and did not believe in him."
Why would John call leaders Jews? Don't you think it is rather strange? Were not Galileans Jews? Were not apostles Jews? Was not John a Jew?
"It is true, though,
that the Jewish antagonistic leadership was concentrated in Jerusalem which
was in Judea."
If you agree with it, wouldn't it be more logical for John call the bad leaders Judeans instead of Jews?
Before I noticed the examples above where IOUDAIOI are identified with Judea and not with Judaism, I could not undersand how John being a Jew can be so anti-Jewish. But when we see that in those passages John means Judeans (meaning of cource the leaders as you said), it explains that.
Again, I am not saying that the word always means Judeans. I am speaking particularly about the Gospel of John, and particularly about those anti-Judean sayings.
Sincerely,
Dmitriy Reznik
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