[B-Greek] John 1 Questions
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at ioa.com
Thu Aug 4 17:33:31 EDT 2005
On Aug 4, 2005, at 3:47 PM, malcolm robertson wrote:
> Dear Dony,
>
> I think it is quite odd that a relative pronoun would be used to
> start a sentence (a clause - yes) in Greek. If someone has
> concrete examples please post them.
1 John 1:1 hO\ HN AP' ARCHS,hO AKHKOAMEN, hO hEWRAKAMEN TOIS
OFQALMOIS hHMWN, hO EQEASAMEQA KAI hAI CEIRES hHMWN EYHLAFHSAN PERI
TOU LOGOU THS ZWHS ...
Looks like a deliberate strategy in 1 John 1:1, which I think has a
fair claim to being authentically Johannine. I'm not going looking
for others, but I think that the relative clause out front followed
by a clause with a demonstrative referent of the relative pronoun is
not at all uncommon in Greek. There are lots of such constructions in
Mt beginning with hOSTIS ...
> Doctrinal considerations aside, this example at Jn 1:3 should be
> capable of elucidation at the grammar level. Normally a relative
> pronoun has an antecedent and to which it agrees in gender and
> number. It's own case is determined by it's usage in it's own
> clause. As far as punctuation goes at Jn 1:3, I would have to
> disagree with both Metzger et al and Westcott and Hort. The OUDE
> hEN hO GEGONEN is all inclusive and not solely limited to EN AUWi
> ZWH HN.
>
> Remember that the early Uncial manuscripts had a continuous capital
> script text (no spaces or punctuation) so the punctuations we see
> in printed editions of the Greek New Testament are reflective of
> decisions not displayed in the hand written NT text itself.
>
> I think the English Standard Version has correctly understood and
> translated this verse by placing the period after hO GEGONEN.
I'm not really arguing the matter one way or the other; granted that
hO GEGONEN EN AUTWi ZWH HN is difficult, but on the other hand, hO
GEGONEN seems troublesome as a redundancy and a stylistic anticlimax.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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