[B-Greek] Fwd: Question about John 10:18

Oun Kwon kwonbbl at gmail.com
Fri Feb 1 19:58:33 EST 2008


On Feb 1, 2008 7:40 PM, Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:
>
> On Feb 1, 2008, at 6:08 PM, Oun Kwon wrote:
>
> > If I understand the text,
> >
> > TAUTHN THN ENPOLHN ELABON PARA TOU PATROS MOU
>                            ENTOLHN
> >
> >
> > as 'This [is] the command [that] I received from my father',
> >
> > am I misunderstanding the Greek?
>
> You are if you think you have literally rendered the Greek text; on
> the other hand, I think you have rendered the content and rhetorical
> force of the word-order of the Greek. An alternative would be, " I
> received the commandment from my father -- which one? THIS one."
>
> > Then, how would it be phrased in Gk for different English sentences
> > with different nuance and focus, such as
>
> I think the text of John 10:18 could be conveyed with any one of the
> formulations you suggest for the English below. On the other hand,
> each could also be expressed somewhat differently:
>
>
> >   This command — that's what I received from my Father.
> >   It is this command that I received from my Father.
> >   This is the command that I received from my Father.
>
> You might play around with the Greek to get the following equivalents:
> (a) hAUTH hH ENTOLH (hHN hUMIN ENTELLOMAI), TAUTHN ELABON PARA TOU
> PATROS MOU.
> (b) hAUTH hH ENTOLH ESTIN hHN ELABON PARA TOU PATROS MOU.
> (c) hAUTH ESTIN hH ENTOLH hHN ELABON PARA TOU PATROS MOU.
>
> In my opinion, (a) is awkward and improbable as anything a Greek
> speaker/writer would have composed, but it is, I think, intelligible.
> I think that (b) and (c) have pretty much the same meaning, but I
> think that (c) is more common Greek.
>
> I think if you had seen Iver's earlier response in this thread you
> might not have posed the questions you have raised here. I think that
> Iver has covered the nauances of the alternative formulations actually
> found in the GNT pretty well.
>

>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
>
>

Hi, Carl.

I was thinking backward from English, while his posting put me think
from the Greek. I'll read them together again.

A few I need to clarify for myself (afraid it may be too elementary questions):

"TAUTHN THN ENTOLHN" -

Is the Greek word order usual one for 'this command'?  Can TAUTHN come
after THN or ENPOLHN? Hmm, it seems TAUTHN may be fronted to give its
prominence, does it?

Is it possible to take this as TAUTHN ESTIN THN ENTOLHN with  'ESTIN'
in ellipsis? [Reading too much like English?].

Thank you again,

Oun.



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