[B-Greek] Holy Spirit John 1:33

Elizabeth Kline kline-dekooning at earthlink.net
Fri Nov 4 12:26:18 EST 2005


Iver Larsen has made some finely nuanced observations. Perhaps we  
could take a look at a different text John 1:33.

John 1:32 Καὶ ἐμαρτύρησεν Ἰωάννης  
λέγων ὅτι τεθέαμαι τὸ πνεῦμα  
καταβαῖνον ὡς περιστερὰν ἐξ  
οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν.  33  
κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ  
πέμψας με βαπτίζειν ἐν ὕδατι  
ἐκεῖνός μοι εἶπεν· ἐφ᾿ ὃν ἂν  
ἴδῃς τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον καὶ  
μένον ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ  
βαπτίζων ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ.

Jn 1:32 KAI EMARTURHSEN IWANNHS LEGWN hOTI TEQEAMAI TO PNEUMA  
KATABAINON hWS PERISTERAN EX OURANOU KAI EMEINEN EP' AUTON.  33 KAGW  
OUK HiDEIN AUTON, ALL' hO PEMYAS ME BAPTIZEIN EN hUDATI EKEINOS MOI  
EIPEN: EF' hON AN IDHiS TO PNEUMA KATABAINON KAI MENON EP' AUTON,  
hOUTOS ESTIN hO BAPTIZWN EN PNEUMATI hAGIWi.


On Nov 4, 2005, at 12:56 AM, Iver Larsen wrote:

> In Mark 1:8 there is a clear contrast between two different "media"  
> for baptism: water and holy-spirit. hUDATI is also anarthrous,
> because the text does not refer to a particular known body of  
> water, but to water as water. In the same way, I think the
> anarthrous PNEUMATI seeks to focus on the description of "holy  
> spirit" as opposed to water, i.e. one is a water baptism, the other
> is a holy-spirit baptism.
> When the Holy Spirit is *referred to* as a known entity rather than  
> as here *describing* the referent, it will be arthrous.

The question: In John 1:33 do TO PNEUMA and PNEUMATI hAGIWi point to  
the same referent? Please note that this is a somewhat different  
question than the one Iver is addressing above.

>
> Now, how to translate that into English is an entirely different  
> matter. Because there is only one holy spirit, i.e. The Holy
> Spirit, it would give the wrong connotation in English to talk  
> about "a holy spirit". Notice that Greek does not have an
> indefinite pronoun corresponding to the English indefinite pronoun.  
> It would not be adequate either to translate as "baptise in
> holy spirit".
>

Beasley-Murray (John WBC p.25) and R.E.Brown (John AB p.66) both  
translate PNEUMATI hAGIWi in Jn 1:33 as anarthrous but they also both  
clearly imply that  TO PNEUMA and PNEUMATI hAGIWi are co-referential  
(point to the same referent).

Therefore the question of the anarthrous PNEUMATI hAGIWi having a  
known referent is in fact a different question than how it is  
"*referred to*"
>
> When the Holy Spirit is *referred to* as a known entity rather than  
> as here *describing* the referent, it will be arthrous.


Elizabeth Kline







More information about the B-Greek mailing list