[B-Greek] A Question for B-Greek John 20:26 "After eight days"

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jan 16 16:37:02 EST 2007


On Jan 16, 2007, at 3:53 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:

> 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.

There really shouldn't be any confusion; we have to recognize that  
English usage is different: in English usage the count begins on the  
day following the point of reference. A translator must make that  
adjustment. The texts in John 11 SHOULD carry over into English as  
"he's been in the tomb for three days now" or "he's there for the  
third day." It may be that the translation expresses it as "FOUR"  
days, but anyone reading it has to realize that the reckoning is  
inclusive.


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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