[B-Greek] Translating Mark 1:4
Cirk Bejnar
eluchil404 at yahoo.com
Thu Nov 3 10:40:35 EST 2005
--- Dan Gleason <dan-bgreek at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Translating Mark 1:4
>
> EGEVETO IWANNHS hO BAPTIZWN EV THi ERHMUi
> John became the-one immersing in the Wilderness ...
>
> KAI KHRUSSWN BAPTISMA METAVOIAS
> and preaching an-Immersion of-Repentance ...
>
> EIS AFESIN HAMARTIWV
> into a-forgiveness of-Sins.
I'll address some larger issues first and then get
into specifics. In my view the most important things
that hasn't been noted has to do with the meaning of
'in' which in these passages can represent EN, EIS, or
the dative without preposition. Except for EIS these
forms do not emphasize _location_ but rather
relationship of means. This is especially important
in 1:8. When John EBAPTiSA hUDATI his point is that
water is the means or tool of his action not that the
baptized is put inside the water (even though they
were, of course).
As for 1:4 I would understand EGENETO as an
introductory word meaning "it happened" or "it
occured". The meaning can't be "John became the one
baptizing" because paticiples aren't usually used that
way and the article never is. hO serves to closely
link BAPTIZWN with IWANNHS rather than mark it as a
predicate.
As has been pointed out hO BPTIZWN serves to label and
identify John virtually as a title, like John the
Baptist in English. If you want to avoid using what
has become a set English phrase you would have to
translate it something like John, the one who was
baptizing.
EIS indicated the purpose, goal, or result of the
baptism, as has been pointed out.
Now a question on my own behalf. KAI coordinates the
two participles. Does that mean that they stand in a
closely similar relationship to IWANNHS or can they be
taken differently one very atributive and the other
very circumstantial?
I think the second option makes more sense but am
curious as to what others more expert than I think.
Given these thoughts, I would translate
"And it happened that John, the one who was baptizing,
was in the wilderness and he preached a baptism of
repentence for the forgiveness of sins."
Cirk R. Bejnar
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