[B-Greek] John 1:1c

Awohili at aol.com Awohili at aol.com
Wed Jul 5 13:37:07 EDT 2006


 
 
Another very early translation of John's Greek text is that of the Coptic  
Sahidic version (probably 2nd/3rd century).  The Egyptian Copts were quite  
familiar with Koine, which was introduced to Egypt from the time of Alexander,  
and was still a spoken language at the time, and were careful translators of the 
 NT.  Many textual critics recognize the value of the Coptic NT for their  
field of study, considering it to be as relevant as the Vulgate and the  
Peshitta, for example..
 
The Sahidic Coptic translation of John 1:1b says,
 
auw p.SaJe ne.F.Soop n.naHr.m p.noute,
 
meaning, "and the Word was (existing) *in the presence of* the God."
 
Thus, they translated Greek PROS by their word *naHrn* (duly conjugated),  
signifying that this One was in God's presence, or in intimate association with  
Him.
 
Solomon Landers
 .
 
In a message dated 07/05/2006 10:06:58 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
frjsilver at optonline.net writes:

Dear Friends --

Perhaps  the crux of the matter isn't the anarthrous predicative construction 
in 1c so  much as the PROS in 1b, which has given us some food for thought.

I  notice that Latin renders PROS as _apud_;  Church Slavonic, a little more  
literally, has _k"_ while Modern Russian renders this as _u_, much more like  
the Latin.  Yet Modern Greek versions (no stable translations of the  
scriptures as yet) variously give the original PROS and -- to my taste -- the  oddly 
appropriated PARA.

Yet none of these languages suggests 'with'  (or anything like it).  Rather, 
all of them, with the weak exception of  Church Slavonic, have much more the 
flavor of  'at'.







More information about the B-Greek mailing list