[B-Greek] John 3:3 and John 21:16 KTL

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Feb 26 06:57:51 EST 2005


At 5:28 AM -0500 2/26/05, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>Forwarded for: "Peter Clark" <peter_clark47 at hotmail.com>
>
>In the two verses above there seems to be a repetition of ideas: APEKRIQH
>hO IHSOUS KAI EIPEN AUTWi (3:3) AND LEGEI AUTWi PALIN DEUTERON (21:16). It
>has been suggested that the first example can be accounted for by it being
>a Semitism which was retained in the LXX and thus found its way into the
>Gospels and Acts. It is apparently unknown in Classical Greek. The second
>example is a little harder to explain. Why PALIN DEUTERON and not just
>PALIN or DEUTERON?
>
>This issue arose in my Greek class last week and I'd like some suggestions!

(a) Various combinations of APOKRINOMAI and LEGW/EIPON are indeed common in
the LXX and do seem to reflect Hebrew idiomatic usage; I find 41 instances
of the combination APOKRIQEIS ... EIPEN in the LXX and that's only one of
the possible combinations; one sees also APEKRIQH ... KAI EIPEN.

(b) As for the combination of PALIN DEUTERON in Jn 21:16, I don't think the
PALIN is really redundant; it means not only "again" but also can have the
sense, "back" or "in response" or "in turn." Taking into account that this
is an exchange in which the question is put to Peter three times in varying
forms with three varying answers, I'd turn LEGEI AUTWi PALIN DEUTERON as
"he says to him in reply a second time." There is no APOKRIQEIS here, and
it seems to me that the PALIN serves the same function. But alternatively
it can be deliberately redundant, to underscore the point that we are
accumulating question and answer segments sequentially: "again he
say--second time ..." alerting the reader/listener to expect yet a third
time. I think it's just a narrative strategy.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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