[B-Greek] Basic Dictionary Work in John 1

Eric S. Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 28 09:45:01 EDT 2008


I remember getting Andy Gaus's THE UNVARNISHED GOSPELS when it came out in 
  the early 1990s (later he published THE UNVARNISHED NEW TESTAMENT), and the 
  preface or foreword made a big deal about how some priest's or scholar's spiritual life 
  was radically impacted when while reading PROS TON QEON in John 1:1 he realized 
  this was saying that the Word was face-to-face with God and that there was this eternal 
  movement between the Father and the Son expressed by prepositional phrase. The writer 
  was using this as an example of how Gaus's translation "uncolored by theology" would 
  similarly impact the reader. (E.g., hAGION PNEUMA always translated as "holy breath"; 
  BAPTIZW/BAPTISMA translated as "bathe/bathing"; etc.)
   
  Good marketing lure/hype, I guess. I never caught the allure of Gaus's translation as I felt it 
  was at times too deliberately unorthodox and at other times not that remarkably different 
  superior to other translations I had. Anyway, after I had taken some Greek, I was one day 
  reading Romans 5:1 - ... EIRHNHN ECOMEN PROS TON QEON ... - and I recalled Gaus's 
  translation and reflected that sometimes PROS just means "with." Maybe "with" in terms of 
  "with respect to" and maybe even "face to face with" - but trying to see some eternal 
  dynamic movement out of the two parties on either side of the PROS seemed like a stretch 
  to me.
   
  So sometimes a banana is only a banana.
   
  Best wishes with your studies!


  Eric S. Weiss
  

       
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