[B-Greek] EXETAZW

Mike Sangrey MSangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Wed May 18 11:13:01 EDT 2005


On Wed, 2005-05-18 at 16:57 +0200, A. J. Birch wrote:
> Dear 'B-Greekers',
> 
> Regarding the meaning of EXETAZW, it seems to appear only three times
> in the Greek New Testament: Matthew 2:8; Matthew 10:11; and John
> 21:12. Whereas Matthew 2:8 would seem to lend support to a 'stronger'
> meaning (see George Somsel's post), the John (21:12) text doesn't seem
> to lend itself quite so readily to such a meaning. I just wonder (and
> thus ask out loud) if this might not be yet another example of words
> that can have both 'stronger' and 'less strong' meanings, according to
> the context.

It might be that John is using a stronger word in order to add some
emphasis to the question they did not ask.  In other words, the
disciples are not merely asking for this guy's name.  It's not:  "What's
your name, fella?"  It was a lot more along the lines of the English
"Who in the world ARE you?"  They would not DARE ask such a question;
they KNEW who it was.  I think the word order also indicates this.

-- 
Mike Sangrey
msangrey AT BlueFeltHat.org
Landisburg, Pa.
                        "The first one last wins."
            "A net of highly cohesive details reveals the truth."




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