[B-Greek] question about parakleitos

Jeffrey B. Gibson jgibson000 at comcast.net
Tue Jun 6 14:00:33 EDT 2006



"Carl W. Conrad" wrote:

> On Jun 6, 2006, at 10:52 AM, George F Somsel wrote:
>
> > At Jn 14.25 where what the function of the PARAKLHTOS will be is
> > stated, it speaks of teaching and reminding
> >
> >   hO DE PARAKLHTOS, TO PNEUMA TO hAGION, hO PEMYEI hO PATHR EN TWi
> > ONOMATI MOU, EKEINOS ** DIDACEI ** PANTA KAI ** hUPOMNHSEI ** hUMAS
> > PANTA hA EIPON hUMIN [EGW]
> >
> >   It seems necessary to circumnavigate the barn in order to reach a
> > conclusion that this has anything to do with consoling.
>
> George, have you read the article to which Yancy referred? I have
> not. But I would hesitate to rule out that sense of comforter --
> especially inasmuch as (1) "comfort" is a common sense of PARAKALEW,
> (2) some English versions have actually used the word, "comforter" to
> translate PARAKLHTOS in the Johannine passages; (3) BDAG gives as a
> basic sense, "‘one who is called to someone’s aid’ ... In the few
> places where the word is found in pre-Christian and extra-Christian
> lit. as well it has for the most part a more general sense: one who
> appears in another’s behalf, mediator, intercessor, helper" I think
> that the entire article on PARAKLHTOS in BDAG is worth reading
> carefully.

One of the things that is overlooked in the "is comforter a good translation
of PARAKLHTOS" question  is that the English word originally did not have
the sense of "consolation" that it does now.  Rather,  given its origin

[= Of. confortere(s, -teor, transl. L. cons{omac}l{amac}tor, a common
rendering since 7th c. of PARAKLHTOS = advocatus ‘advocate, intercessor]

it meant, as PARAKLHTOS does, an advocate.

Yours,

Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000 at comcast.net





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