[B-Greek] Jo 20:10 PRO AUTOUS/hEAUTOUS

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Fri Sep 8 14:13:23 EDT 2006


I think the phrase should not be translated as "to their own homes" which, as you note would require something more like TA IDIA.  PROS AUTOUS, however, does not have a possesive connotation.  I would suggest rather that it should be "by themselves" or even "alone" (as a group, not individually).
   
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Chet Creider <creider at uwo.ca> wrote:
  The N-A 27 text of verse 10 is: APHLQON OUN PALIN PROS AUTOUS hOI MAQHTAI.

Barrett, in the 2nd ed. of his commentary writes: "PROS AUTOUS (so Aleph, B;
most mss. have hEAUTOUS). The translation 'went to their own homes' seems
impossible; John would have written PROS (or EIS) TA IDIA (cf. 1.11, 16.32)
[also 19:27 -- Chet C.]. John's expression corresponds exactly to the 
Aramaic
ethic dative [expression given]. But there is no need to suppose that 
John is
translating; cf. Num 24.25; Josephus, _Ant_ VIII, 124; and perhaps Polybius
V, xciii, I."

Ralph Kiplatrick, for the never published BFBS 3rd. ed. (but John published
"For private circulation only" as _John, A Greek-English Diglot for the Use
of Translators_ gives PROS hEAUTOUS and translates the passage as "So the
disciples went away again."

In BDAG, under hEAUTOU, 1-a-"IOTA", the hEAUTOUS reading is accepted and
translated as "go home" with the note, "(for AUTOUS, cp. Polyb 5, 93,1;
Num 24:25; Jos. Ant. 8, 125; s. MBLACK An Aramaic Approach<3>, 67, 102f.)."

The Nova Vulgata has 'semetipos', an intensive form of 'ipsos' (which
corresponds to hEAUTOUS).

I only have access to the Numbers passage (in Ralfs) but it is interesting:

KAI ANASTAS BALAAM APHLQEN APOSTRAFEIS EIS TON TOPON AUTOU, KAI BALAK
APHLQEN PROS hEAUTON [note the possibly contrastive use of hEAUTON]

My question: is this kind of expression Semitic in origin or was it
used elsewhere in Greek (e.g. in the papyri, earlier literature). I think
I've run across the equivalent of the expression "chez soi" either in
Homer or Attic Greek but can't remember it. It may not be relevant.

Chet Creider

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george
gfsomsel
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