[B-Greek] John's prologue prose or poetry?

Alexander Loney aloney at gmail.com
Sun Dec 18 13:08:12 EST 2005


I come at this from the other angle. I have no experience with Hebrew poetry
( beyond translation), but am more familiar with Greek forms. Usually one
of, perhaps *the*, defiinng characteristic of poetry is whether it's
metrical, not just merely well-constructed, occasionally rhythmic, or
euphonious--these are attributes of rhetoric as well as poetry. But just in
passing I haven't the opportunity yet to try scanning it. Mr. Kilmon, when
you suggest that it is antiphonal, do you believe that it forms regular
metrical lines? Does it scan as poetry?

On 12/17/05, Jack Kilmon <jkilmon at historian.net> wrote:
>
> There are many, including myself, who think the prologue is an antiphonal
> hymn added to the Gospel (which originally began at 1:19) sometime in the
> 2nd...or perhaps the 3rd century.
>
> Jack Kilmon
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <bowick at idirect.com>
> To: <bowick at idirect.com>
> Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2005 6:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] John's prologue prose or poetry?
>
>
> > Been doing some more thinking on this.  My seeing this as poetry is
> based
> > entirely on applying my understanding of Hebrew poetic forms to John
> 1:1.
> > Is this valid?  I have no experience with Greek poetic structure.  Can
> > anyone comment on how it might differ?
> >
> > James Bowick
> >> It definitely looks like poetry to me.  The lines are in parallel
> >> thematically, structuraly and even phonetically, especially in the
> >> vowels.
> >>  Each line seems to build on the idea of the one previous almost like
> >> steps, gving it a building feeling.  I have done no reading on this,
> but
> >> these are my admittedly casual observations.
> >>
> >> James Bowick
> >>
> >>> I was just reading John's prologue, John 1:1 ff.  To me this passage
> has
> >>> always looked like it has a lot of poetic elements in it but I don't
> see
> >>> that commented on very much. What is the consensus of the list. Is
> this
> >>> prose or poetry?
> >>> Sincerely,
> >>> Michael Abernathy
> >>> ---
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--
Alexander Loney
Durham, NC



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