[B-Greek] GENNAW

william zeitler william at faithfulbible.com
Fri May 27 11:37:28 EDT 2005


On Friday 27 May 2005 08:15 am, Mike Sangrey wrote:
> The question then appears to be more along the lines of:  why not
> translate as "unless you're procreated again/from above"?  Or possibly,
> "unless you're recreated from above."

Yes, that is PRECISELY the question.

> For the first I'll simply mention that when you ask a translation
> question you are immediately dealing with TWO languages.  The reason to
> not use 'begotten' in that case is that no one uses the word 'begotten'
> today.  It's archaic.

I'm trying hard not to ask a 'translation' question, but I do have to use
English to ask it. (Hmm, an exegesis forum conducted entirely in Greek would
be interesting!)

In vs. 4 when Nicodemus asks about 'MH DUNATAI EIS THN KOILIAN THS MATROS
AOUTOU DEUTERON' ('able to enter into his mother's womb a second time') it's
worth recalling that the womb is also where 'begetting' takes place.

So far the apparent reason for understanding (translating) it as 'born'
 rather than 'choose-your-modern-synonym-for-beget' is that it makes better
 English, as well as Nicodemus' question in vs. 4.

william zeitler

-------------------------------------------------------



More information about the B-Greek mailing list