[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/





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