[B-Greek] IWANNHN 1:1
Jason Broander
broander at gmail.com
Thu Mar 3 19:33:15 EST 2005
Hi,
This is my first time posting to B-Greek; I just joined the list.
I'm a 'little Greek', as is said, so bear with me if my questions seem a
bit silly to the 'big greeks' out there. I've got two questions.
The first is concerning the meaning of PROS in IWANNHN 1:1 -- "EN ARCE
HN hO LOGOS, KAI hO LOGOS PROS TON QEON, KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS."
PROS is matched with TON QEON, which is, as all of you know, the
accusative of hO QEOS. My problem is in understanding why hO QEOS is in
accusative and not dative, if the meaning is close to the famous
translation of PROS as 'with'. Maybe my problem is that my only lexicon
is the 'Middle Liddell', but I can't find a satisfactory accusative
meaning in either that lexicon or the full Liddell lexicon on Perseus.
Is there a more nuanced meaning of PROS, with several different shades
of meaning, than simply the oft-used meaning of 'with', or is this just
a characteristic of KOINE that the classical lexicons miss?
My second question concerns Johns ussage of the definite article in the
above-quoted verse. John uses the definite article with every instance
of LOGOS and QEOS but the last instance of QEOS. This makes the famous
translation 'and the word was God' quite obvious in English. However,
he uses the definite article with the other instance of QEOS, and it is
typically deleted in translation. I'm rambling... My question is this:
is there a certain meaning meant when John uses the definite article
with the first instance of QEON, and a different meaning when he uses
QEON without it the second time, even a subtle one?
Thanks B-Greek.
Jason Broander
3rd Year Undergrad, University of Chicago
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