[B-Greek] A Question for B-Greek John 20:26 "After eight days"
Oun Kwon
kwonbbl at gmail.com
Tue Jan 16 15:53:43 EST 2007
On 1/15/07, Carl W. Conrad <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu> wrote:
> This is standard ancient "inclusive reckoning" whereby the day of
> reference is the first item in the count: Friday = day 1, Saturday =
> day 2, Sunday = day 3. So META hHMERAS OKTW means "eight days" (one
> week) following (and including) the day of reference. This is still
> common practice in some countries: I regularly encountered in Germany
> the phrase "heute in acht Tagen" -- i.e. "eight days from today"
> meaning "a week from today."
>
>
> Carl W. Conrad
The text is well understood as covering the day of resurrection -appearance
(1st day of the week) and the next 1st day of the week. (Sunday and the
next Sunday).
However, the expression META hHMERAS OKTW in Gk cannot be same as 'after
eight days' in English usage. If we take the event day as day 1 (on a
Sunday), the next Sunday would be day 8. However, 'after 8 days' in English
means (reckoning inclusively) 'past 8 days', i.e. referring day 9, 10, 11,
etc. A proper unambiguous way of rendering it would be 'on the eighth
day'.
To make reckoning days complicated, there is a confusing example in G-Jn
about Lazarus' death and arrival of Jesus in Bethany:
Jn 11:17b TESSARAS HDH hHMERAS ECONTA EN TWi MNHMEIWi
Jn 11:39 TETARTAIOS GAR ESTIN
Referring to the same day, 'it has been in the tomb four days' in v. 17 and
'it is fourth day' in v. 39. How I can reconcile the two?
Weymouth renders them 'for three days' and 'it is three days'. respectively.
Many take 'four days' and 'four days' in both places.
Similar difficulties I have encountered in the Passion narratives when I
come across the expression 'after three days' 'three days later' and 'on the
third day', apparently referring to the same day. (Is it that counting off
days may be different than expressing 'duration' of days?)
I would appreciate greatly for your helping me out of confusion.
Oun.
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