[B-Greek] Jn 2:25 AUTOS DE IHSOUS OUK EPISTEUEN AUTON AUTOIS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Feb 22 08:07:31 EST 2007


On Feb 20, 2007, at 2:50 PM, Webb wrote:

> I think something significant drops out if one translates AUTOS DE  
> IHSOUS
> OUK EPISTEUEN AUTON AUTOIS as "Jesus didn't trust them. I would  
> render it:
>
> "But Jesus himself wasn't entrusting himself to them."
> Or maybe, in order to remove the stylistic clumsiness of the two  
> instances
> of "himself":
> "But as for Jesus, he wasn't entrusting himself to them."

I've been puzzling over this for several days now. It must  
unquestionably mean "wasn't entrusting himself to them," mustn't it?

Jarring as it is, the problem with this locution doesn't lie in usage  
of AUTON for hEAUTON; the rough breathing was no longer pronounced, I  
think, and the EAU had long been pronounced AU -- so presumably even   
if it were written as hEAUTON there would be no differentiation in  
pronunciation of hEAUTON and AUTON.

My problem is rather with the intended sense of the locuation OUK  
EPISTEUEN AUTON AUTOIS.

Considering alternatives from what BDAG indicates, I find:

1. to consider someth. to be true and therefore worthy of one’s  
trust, believe
	c. w. pers. and thing added π. τινί τι believe someone with  
regard to someth. (X., Apol. 15 MHDE TAUTA EIKHi PISTEUSHTE TWi QEWi)  
Hm 6, 2, 6.—W. dat. of pers. and ὅτι foll. (ApcEsdr 4:35 p. 29,  
12 Tdf.): PISTEUETE MOI hOTI EGW EN TWi PATRI J 14:11a. Cp. 4:21; Ac  
27:25.

2. to entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence, believe  
(in), trust, w. implication of total commitment to the one who is  
trusted.
	(several usages indicated here, including (a) dative of person, (b)  
with EIS and acc. of person, (c) with EPI and dat. of person, (d)  
with EN and dat. of person, (e) absolute, i.e. without a complement.

3. entrust TINI TI someth. to someone
	Here we find AUTON (so N. and Tdf.; v.l. hEAUTON) TINI trust oneself  
to someone (Brutus, Ep. 25; Plut., Mor. 181d ANDRI MALLON AGAQWi  
PISTEUSAS hEAUTON H OCURWi TOPWi=entrusting himself to a good man  
rather than to a stronghold; EpArist 270; Jos., Ant. 12, 396) J 2:24  
(EStauffer, CDodd Festschr., ’56, 281–99.—Diod. S. 34 + 35 fgm.  
39a OU TOIS TUCOUSI FILOIS hEAUTON EPISTEUSEN=he did not trust  
himself to casual friends).
	Also here is Pass. PISTEUOMAI TI (B-D-F §159, 4) I am entrusted with  
something.

What I'm having trouble understanding here is how the locution (BDAG  
#3) with the reflexive pronoun (hEAUTON PISTEUEIN TINI) is different  
in meaning from locution (BDAG #2) with all those alternative modes  
of indicating the complement of PISTEUEIN. That is to say, I'm  
wondering whether there is a real semantic difference between OUK  
EPISTEUEN AUTON AUTOIS and OUK EPISTEUEN AUTOIS. I'm wondering  
whether BOTH expressions don't really mean the same thing, namely,  
"he did not put his trust in them."

And even IF there's an intent to emphasize that these Jerusalemites  
are dangerous and could very well turn on him and bring about his  
death, would that sense be less clearly indicated if our texts simply  
said OUK EPISTEUEN AUTOIS? Using BDAG #2 we could English this as "he  
would not entrust himself to them in complete confidence."

The locution strikes me as somewhat fishy.

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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