[B-Greek] John 1:1,3 staircase pattern

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jul 4 05:37:12 EDT 2006


  Kelton, I would urge you to watch out for the mixing of  
transliteration forms for "Nu": we don't use the "V" but "N" only for  
Nu.


On Jul 3, 2006, at 10:13 PM, kgraham0938 at comcast.net wrote:

> Hey I've heard of that staircase pattern before, can someone  
> illustrate it with regards to hO GEGONEN in John 1:3, Bruce Metzger  
> mentions this in his text critic commentary.  Would it be something  
> like
>
> PANTA DI AUTOU EGENETO KAI CWRIS AUTOU EGENETO OUDE EV
> hO GEGONEN EN AUTWi ZWN HN......
>
> I'm just guessing.

There's dispute over the punctuation of 1:3 (for which see Metzger's  
notes), but in terms of the NA27/UBS4 printed text these three  
clauses DO bear out the staircase pattern:

PANTA DI' AUTOU EGENETO         (PANTA EGENETO)
KAI CWRIS AUTOU EGENETO OUDE hEN    (EGENETO OUDE hEN)
hO\ GEGONEN EN AUTWi ZWH HN  (GEGONEN ... ZWH HN).

>
> --
> Kelton Graham
> KGRAHAM0938 at comcast.net
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
> From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
>
>>
>> On Jul 3, 2006, at 8:38 PM, frjsilver at optonline.net wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Friends --
>>>
>>> My Greek texts of John's Gospel have KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS.
>>>
>>> This particular predicative construction is indeed emphatic,
>>> saying -- almost as an exclamation -- 'and the Word was GOD'.
>>>
>>> Please also note that QEOS is anarthrous, categoric in character,
>>> while the articulated LOGOS is specific.
>>
>> Actually it is pretty standard order for the predicate word to
>> precede the copula with the subject following it. But attention has
>> also been called by many to the "staircase" pattern of alternation in
>> the three clauses of Jn 1:1 -- LOGOS at the end of the first clause,
>> and the beginning of the second clause, at the end of the third  
>> clause:
>>
>> EN ARCHi HN hO LOGOS
>> KAI hO LOGOS HN PROS TON QEON
>> KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS.
>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Roger Kohlstedt
>>> Date: Monday, July 3, 2006 7:54 pm
>>> Subject: [B-Greek] John 1:1c
>>>
>>>> In the last phrase of John 1:1 the English Bible
>>>> states that "the word was God". In the Greek Bible
>>>> it is " QEOS HN LOGOS". Why is the word order
>>>> different in the Greek? Is it to emphasize the divine
>>>> nature of the logos?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Roger Kohlstedt
>>>> ---
>>>> 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
>>
>>
>> Carl W. Conrad
>> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
>> cwconrad2 at mac.com
>> WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
>>
>>
>> ---
>> 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


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





More information about the B-Greek mailing list