[B-Greek] Jn 2:25 AUTOS DE IHSOUS OUK EPISTEUEN AUTON AUTOIS
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Feb 20 17:35:58 EST 2007
On Feb 20, 2007, at 4:20 PM, Webb wrote:
> You're right, as far as you go. But "believing in" somebody/
> somebody's name
> is not just "doing something" in their name. Normally, doing
> something "in
> somebody's name" is a simple metonymy for "by/on their authority".
> But if
> we're talking about things like "singing praises to God's name" or
> "believing in Jesus' name", AND the name itself expresses something
> praiseworthy or worthy of belief, then a "surplus" sense
> potentially comes
> into play. Then one can be praising that aspect of God's character
> which is
> named by God's name, or believing that about Jesus which his name
> expresses.
> Such a nuance wouldn't be the base meaning, but it could be an
> overtone, so
> to speak. And John is a master of overtones.
I'm at a total loss to know what the difference between "singing
praises to God's name" and "singing praises to God" might be. I am
equally at a loss to understand what the difference might be between
"believing in Jesus" and "believing in Jesus' name."
I simply don't understand the intended sense of "that aspect of God's
character which is named by God's name" nor the intended sense of
"that about Jesus which his name expresses."
I think that what we have in these locutions is a reflex of a piety
directed toward HaShem and a conception of conjuring by the name of a
spirit (BDAG,1.d). It reflects the same notion as that underlying the
refusal to pronounce the tetragram and instead to say "Adonai" in
Hebrew or KURIOS in Greek.
I personally think that by PISTEUEIN EIS TO ONOMA IHSOU the
evangelist means the same thing as PISTEUEIN EIS TON IHSOUN -- or
PISTEUEIN TWi IHSOU.
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/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list