[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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