[B-Greek] Jo 5:2 A place or a pool?

Wieland Willker wie at uni-bremen.de
Wed Aug 20 06:24:50 EDT 2008


There are two possibilities to accent the word KOLUMBHQRA, either as nominative KOLUMBH/QRA, or as dative KOLUMBH/QRAI. 

1. Nominative: In this case one has to add a noun in the dative to EPI TH PROBATIKHI. Normally one adds PULHI and gets sheep-gate: "There is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, called …" In that case Bethesda is the name of the pool. 

2. Dative: In this case one gets: "There is in Jerusalem by the sheep-pool, a place called …"

Against the nominative can be argued that
- no father or pilgrim mentions the addition of PULHI. All fathers take PROBATIKH KOLUMBHQRA together. 
- a pool cannot adequately be called a "house". 
- since KOLUMBHQRA has no article, there shouldn't be one in front of EPILEGOMENH. 

Against the dative can only be said that one is missing the explicite "a place". But this is not unusual (compare Mk 15:7 or Lk 22:47). 

If one accepts the dative one should speak of a place called Bethesda near the sheep-pool and not of a pool called Bethesda. 

What do you think? 


Best wishes
    Wieland
       <><
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Wieland Willker, Bremen, Germany
mailto:wie at uni-bremen.de
http://www.uni-bremen.de/~wie
Textcritical commentary:
http://www.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/index.html




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