[B-Greek] A new student to Greek with a question

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed May 18 06:22:09 EDT 2005


 
On Tuesday, May 17, 2005, at 11:57PM, <JEvans1007 at aol.com> wrote:

>At one time there was page that showed how to transliterate the Greek so it 
>could be read by all.  I was unable to find that page so I hope I am doing this 
>correctly.  As I say I am a new student to Greek so this is a very simple 
>question to most of you.
>
>In Mark 1:1 ARCHE is in the nominative case, Does this mean that it is the 
>subject of the phrase that makes up Mark 1:1?
>
>This next question is probably not for this list but I'll ask anyway.  Is 
>Mark saying that his entire book is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ? 
>This would means everything from the baptism to the empty tomb is the 
>beginning of the gospel.  What kind of implications does that have!  Or does he mean 
>something else.  This last portions is just the musing of an old man?

Yes, ARCH (we normally use "C" for Chi, although some use "X", and the final vowel 
is H, not E) in Mark 1:1 is nominative. One common understanding here is that ARCH
TOU EUAGGELIOU refers to the opening pericope: the appearance of John the Baptist
EN THi ERHMWI and his heralding of "the one who will baptize with Holy Spirit." It
is generally held that EUAGGELION in Mark does NOT mean a book of the genre "gospel"
but rather the gospel message proclaimed by Jesus (Mk 1:15 PISTEUETE TWi EUAGGELIWi).

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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