[B-Greek] John 1.19-21 (was Luke 1:20-21) What did he say?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Nov 27 07:35:31 EST 2006
On Nov 26, 2006, at 7:20 PM, gfsomsel at yahoo.com George F Somsel
wrote:
> 19 KAI hAUTH ESTIN hH MARTURIA TOU IWANNOU hOTI APESTEILAN [PROS
> AUTON] hOI IOUDAIOI EC hIERROSOUMWN hIEREIS KAI LEUITAS hINA
> ERWTHSWSIN AUTON, "SU TIS EI?"
> 20 KAI hWMOLOGHSEN KAI OUK HRNHSATO, KAI hWMOLOGHSEN hOTI EGW OUK
> EIMI hO XRISTOS
> 21 KAI HROWTHSAN AUTON, "TI OUN? SU HLIAS EI?" KAI LEGEI, "OUK
> EIMI." "hO PROFHTHS EI SU?" KAI APEKRIQH, "OU."
>
> Just what is John supposed to be denying here? He denies being the
> Messiah, and it would seem that he fairly clearly states that he is
> not Elijah. Does he then deny that he is a prophet at all? In the
> question put to him after denying being Elijah he is asked " *** hO
> PROFHTHS EI SU ** ?" Are they asking whether he is Elijah again or
> are they asking whether he is a prophet at all? Since the article
> can be used to reference an item or person already mentioned, are
> they asking "Are you the [i.e. 'THAT'] prophet?" A.T. Robertson in
> _Word Pictures_ seems to be of the opinion that this refers to the
> Deutonomic promise in Dt 18.15, and B.F. Westcott seems to be of
> the same opinion
>
> PROFHTHN EK TWN ADELFWN SOU hWS EME ANASTHSEI SOI KURIOS hO QEOS
> SOU . . .
I'm writing primarily to bring some closure to this mis-labeled item
for the sake of the list archives:
(1) The original subject-header "Luke 1:20-21" was never relevant to
anything; the question concerns the narrative in John 1 immediately
following the prologue (1:1-18);
(2) The Greek text and its meaning AS GREEK TEXT is in no way in
dispute; the question raised is, essentially, what's the point of
John's negative responses to questions about his identity raised in
the verses cited;
(3) AT Robertson and Westcott are almost certainly right about the
allusion to Dt 18:15-19; I personally think that the evangelist's
formulation of this narrative belongs to a theme of the KRISIS, which
appears 11x in GJn: the priests and Levites questioning JBpt are
making a judicial inquiry, as the verbs of this exchange pretty
clearly indicate (ERWTAW, hOMOLOGEW, ARNEOMAI, APOKRINOMAI); at the
same time, the evangelist seems intent on demonstrating that claim's
by the Baptist's disciples to any Messianic status at all are at odds
with the Baptist's self-representation -- he even denies being "that
prophet" referred to in Deuteronomy.
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/
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