[B-Greek] John 18:37 EK THS ALHQEIAS
Webb
webb at selftest.net
Mon Nov 14 14:10:16 EST 2005
[Dear List Members--please replace my previous posting with this one, which
has extra line breaks that make it easier to read.]
I think that John's Gospel and the Johannine Letters use EK in a distinctive
way that most often expresses a sense of trajectory. For example, Jesus
comes from (EK) God and goes to (EIS) the world.
So here is a list of the instances of EK that seem to me to denote source,
or starting place on a trajectory:
Jn 1:13, 16, 19, 24, 32, 44, 46; 2:15 (x2), 22; 3:1 (ambig.), 5, 6, 8, 13,
25, 27, 31 (x3/x4); 4:6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 22, 30, 39, 47, 54; 5:24; 6:11, 13,
23, 26, 31, 32 (x2), 33, 39, 41, 42, 50 (x2), 51, 58, 65, 66 (1x/2x); 7:17,
22 (x2), 38, 42, 52 (x2); 8:23 (crux: read in context), 41, 42, 44 (x2), 47,
59, 9:1, 6; 10:16, 32, 39;11:1, 55; 12:1, 3, 9 (1x/2x), 17 (2x), 27, 28, 32,
34, 49; 13:1, 4; 15:19 (x3, crux), 14, 15 (cf. v. 28, with EXERCOMAI); 17:6
(ambig.), 14 (2x, crux), 15 (2x), 16 (2x, crux); 18:36 (2x, crux), 37
(crux); 19:2, 24; 21:14
1 Jn 2:16, 19 (x4), 21, 29; 3:8, 9 (x2), 10, 12 (ambig.), 14, 19, 24; 4:1,
2, 3, 4, 5-6 (x4, crux: see v. 7), 7 (x2), 13; 5:1 (x2), 4, 18 (x2), 19 (in
context: short for "born from God", v. 18); 3 Jn 10
Here are the rest of the instances of EK in John and the Johannine Letters,
which denote current nature, belonging or identity group, more than
trajectory:
Jn 1:35, 40; 3:1 (ambig.), 31 (possibly x1/x4) (ambig.); 6:8, 60, 64, 66
(1x/2x), 70, 71; 7:19, 25, 31, 41, 44, 48 (x2), 50; 8:46; 9:16, 40; 10:26;
11:19, 37, 45, 46, 49: 12:2, 9 (1x/2x), 20, 42; 13:21, 23; 16:5, 17; 17:12;
18:3, 9, 17, 25, 26; 21:2
1 Jn 3:12 (possibly), 4:5-6 (possibly, crux); 2 Jn 4
Nearly all of these latter instances display a stock grammatical formulation
in which members of a certain group are said to do something. "Some of (EK)
his disciples grumbled at this.". In nearly every case (except for possibly
one of the four instances in Jn 3:31, and in 7:31, where the crowd [sg.] is
the source group), the word following EK is in the plural, denoting the
group from which they originate.
Jn 18:36-37:
Jesus answered, "My kingdom isn't from (EK) this world. If my kingdom were
from (EK) this world, my servants would have been fighting to keep me from
being handed over to the Jews. But in fact, my kingdom isn't from here" (Gr.
ENTEUQEN[!]). So Pilate said to him, "So you are a king, then?" Jesus
answered, "You said it* I'm a king. That's the very reason I was born and
came into (EIS) the world--to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is
from (EK) the truth hears my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?".
*Lit. "You say that".
I think John presents Jesus, in the statement, "Everyone who is from (EK)
the truth hears my voice", as saying, metaphorically, that if someone
approaches him from a position of truthfulness in themselves, they will hear
and understand his voice, i.e. they'll understand the truth of his message.
Pilate's response is intended by him to be ironic, but it becomes
unintentionally ironic in John's world, because truth is a place that he
doesn't come from--he doesn't even know where it is.
FWIW
Webb Mealy
-----Original Message-----
From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of virgil newkirk
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2005 9:06 PM
To: B-Greek; stbaldwi at hotmail.com
Subject: [B-Greek] John 18:37 EK THS ALHQEIAS
Dear List,
Pardon another correction to my previous post on John 18:37.
Where I wrote:
VN:
Stephen,
Recently when Carl closed a thread he included the following statement:
"My judgment is that
doctrinal concerns may have weighed more heavily from the outset than
a concern to discern precisely what the text AS A GREEK TEXT may or
may not mean, but arguments are now being adduced from beyond the
immediate context, in some instances without any concern for citation
of a relevant GREEK Biblical text, in support of a doctrinal stance
rather than of a grammatical demonstration."
The challenge:
Can your question be answered accordingly ? Yes, I believe so.
________________
VN
In this last line I should have written:
Can your question be answered according to what is the moderators concern
about the proper guidelines for posting. You all probably knew this is what
I meant; I wanted, however, to correct and clarify.
Thank you all for your understanding,
Virgil Newkirk
Salt Laken
---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list