[B-Greek] Jn 12:44

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Wed Nov 16 16:03:43 EST 2005


On Nov 16, 2005, at 3:42 PM, Scott Wells wrote:

> IHSOUS DE EKRAXEN KAI EIPEN hO PISTEUWN EIS EME OU PISTEUEI EIS EME  
> ALLA EIS TON
> PEMYANTA ME  John 12:44
>
> The NIV inserts "only" in their rendering of this text (Then Jesus  
> cried
> out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only,  
> but in the
> one who sent me.).  I can see why one might want to do this for  
> theological
> reasons, but I don't see any textual justification for it.  Is this a
> legitimate way of rendering the text?

I would say that the NIV is trying to make clear what is implicit in  
the Greek: I think this might be paraphrased without loss of anything  
actually stated in what Jesus 'shouts': "The faith of the believer  
directed toward me is in fact directed toward the Father." It is not  
the case, after all, that the believer does not direct faith toward  
Jesus, but rather that faith directed toward Jesus is directed just  
as surely toward the Father. I think that the NIV version, by adding  
the "only" is clarifying what might otherwise be a misleading  
formulation.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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