[B-Greek] Rev 1:1 referent of pronouns (he, his)
Dave Smith (REL110, 211,212)
rel21x at charter.net
Sun May 21 15:17:19 EDT 2006
Oun,
I think all instances of AUTOU refer to God, and AUTWi refers to Jesus
(1:1). Whether this is valid, or not, demands an appeal to the rest of the
document. Does Revelation refer to DOULOS/OUS TOU CRISTOU or DOULOS/OUS TOU
QEOU, or both. Are the AGGELOS/OUS in this book TOU CRISTOU or TOU QEOU? Or
worse, is it a mixed bag, with the same appleations refering to both God and
Christ, and both having servants, angels, etc. If that is so, and with some
of the paratactic structure in Revelation, my wild guess would be previous
or closest reference or search for a pattern within the book.
Actually, 1:1 is pretty easy if you believe it is paralleled in 22:6
v.1 DOULOIS AUTOU => God's servants/slaves (22:6)
v.1 AGGELOU AUTOU => God's angel (see 22:6)
v.3 AUTHi => the book
v.4 O WN... & AUTOU => God
v.5 A. AUTOU => Jesus Christ
v.6 P. AUTOU => Jesus Christ (the one who loved us)
v.7 AUTON X2, EP' AUTWi, => Jesus Christ
v.8 The first impasse-- If this is from a Johannine community, they could
call Jesus QEOS (Jn 1:1), but an appellation first referring to God (A & W,
the one who is, and was, and is coming), would now go to Jesus Christ, and
this may be exactly the case in 22:13. There may be a merging of Christ
(symbolized as the Lamb here) and God in both Revelation and I Corinthians
15:28. Oscar Cullmann's final note in his Christology of the NT (327),
claimed I Cor 15:28 is the consummation of the Incarnation. It idea looks
similar to the katabasis-anabasis in Philippians 2:5-11 to me.
So, my fellow pilgrim, even if we can figure out vs.1, the rest of the book
may be a mixed bag, deliberately skewing the distinction between God and
Christ after the ascension. That could make finding the referent to some of
the pronouns difficult, especially in the Apocalypse with those referring to
deity.
I would say, that not only this text, but many others in this document are
grammatically and otherwise ambiguous. Some would say that R. H. Charles
(ICC, 2 vols, 1920) attempted a rewrite of Greek Grammar to fit this book.
He actually has a short section on Pronouns (pp. cxxi). Whether he was right
in his speculations is another matter, but the fact that the grammar also
bothered him puts this question in good company.
Dave Smith
Hudson, NC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Oun Kwon" <kwonbbl at gmail.com>
To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 13:38
Subject: [B-Greek] Rev 1:1 referent of pronouns (he, his)
Hi there,
One of the major problem in translated English is identifying the
referent of the pronouns.
(In my native Korean, pronouns are not developed as extensively and
much less frequently employed. Their referents should be explicit. No
ambiguity is allowed.)
In Rev 1:1
APOKALUYIS IHSOU CRISTOU
hHN EDWKEN AUTW hO QEOS
DEIXAI TOIS DOULOIS AUTOU
hA DEI GENESQAI EN TACEI
KAI ESHMANEN APOSTEILAS DIA TOU AGGELOU AUTOU
TW DOULW AUTOU IWANNH
Aside from the obvious one (the subject of EDWKEN is hO QEOS),
I am trying to identify the subject of the verb DEIXAI – (?God or
Christ) and the verb ESHMANEN (?God or Christ).
Also the pronouns AUTOU: Can I settle AGGELOU AUTOU as God's
messenger or is it possible to read as 'Christ's messenger'; DOULOIS
AUTOU, DOULW AUTOU obviously referring to John, is he God's servant or
Christ's servant.
Or the text is grammatically ambiguous?
For example, in Korean translations all these refer to God; Most
English ones uses pronouns, leaving me unclear. A paraphrase one -
CEV - takes all these refer to Christ.
Thanks for your help.
Oun Kwon.
---
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