[B-Greek] EINAI TON CRISTON IHSOUN, Act 18:5
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Nov 13 19:26:31 EST 2007
On Nov 13, 2007, at 5:25 PM, Webb Mealy wrote:
> To complicate matters, hO CRISTOS functions not just as a title, like
> "king", but also as the name/descriptor for a mysterious personage
> that Jews
> believe in, but whose human identity they don't know.
I had thought it was most fundamentally the title of the descendant of
the Davidic dynasty expected to assume the throne. I'd question that
"mysterious personage" notion. It's not quite like "John X. Doe."
There was evidently a considerable string of claimants to be hO
CRISTOS in Palestine who were executed precisely for the reason that
they were thought to have dangerous political aspirations.
> So it's not so much
> like saying, "Jesus is king" as like saying, "Bruce Wayne is
> Batman". The
> latter can be reversed: "Batman is Bruce Wayne!" but the former
> cannot.
I don't question that in the phrase IHSOUS CRISTOS (the common combo
is that or CRISTOS IHSOUS), CRISTOS may be understood as part of a
proper name; what I question is the proposition that hO CRISTOS is a
proper name of the same sort as IWANNHS or IOUDAS or IAKWBOS.
I will grant that a plausible argument can be made for the proposition
that TON CRISTON is the subject and IHSOUN the predicate word. I still
say, "Ya pays yer money and ya take yer choice." And I still choose to
think that IHSOUN is the subject of EINAI and TON CRISTON the
predicate word.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Carl Conrad
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 1:35 PM
> To: Elizabeth Kline
> Cc: greek B-Greek
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] EINAI TON CRISTON IHSOUN, Act 18:5
>
>
> On Nov 13, 2007, at 5:52 AM, Carl Conrad wrote:
>
>> I have the e-text of Wallace, but after reading through it, I really
>> don't think what he says is conclusive; it seems to me that he's
>> reasonably honest here in recognizing that the choice between
>> alternative ways of understanding the Greek in these passages may be
>> subjective or arbitrary rather than clearly resolved by
>> unquestionable
>> criteria. My own subjective choice is "that Jesus is the Christ" --
>> and I guess the criterion I prefer to go with is that the predicate
>> term is the one marked by the article. "Ya pays yer money and ya
>> takes
>> yer choice."
>
>
> I repent me (somewhat); the choice may be subjective, but I'll stick
> with it; what I'd change is my reason for making the choice: it is
> that TON CRISTON is a title while IHSOUN is an individual person.
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
> cwconrad at ioa.com or cwconrad2 at mac.com
> WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
>
>
> ---
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>
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com or cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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