[B-Greek] Translating Mark 1:8

Dan Gleason dan-bgreek at hotmail.com
Wed Nov 2 13:45:33 EST 2005


Translating Mark 1:8

EGW EBAPTISA UMAS UDATI
I immersed you in Water ...

AUTOS DE BAPTISEI UMAS EN PNEUMATI AGIWi
but he will-immerse you in a-Holy Spirit.

Is this translation accurate?
______________________


CC & EK re "a holy spirit" say
No. Since PNEUMATI AGIWi is definiate

JW re "a holy spirit" says: In their grammar Blass and Debrunner (sec 
257(2)) suggest that when the
article is absent it simply denotes "a divine spirit" so in fact here it
is not definite and does not mean The Holy Spirit but instead is equally
translatable as "he will baptize you by means of divine spirit" or some
such. Anarthrous phrases are dicey sometimes and definitive statements like
"pneumati agiw is definite" may, or may not, be true.
_____________________

DG: another question re holy spirit:
The term Holy Spirit is being anartharously introduced for the first time.
Something like a character in a play who is making his first appearance.
The audience who are "in the know" know it refers to God ... but for the 
pagans in the audience ...
Is it possible that an indefinite translation was intended until the 
character was more fully developed in subsequent verses?

Dan Gleason

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