[B-Greek] Possible ellipsis in Jn 1:1
Oun Kwon
kwonbbl at gmail.com
Tue Nov 11 22:31:14 EST 2008
2008/11/11 Nikolaos Adamou <nikolaos.adamou at hotmail.com>:
> 1 Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος.
> 2 Οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν.
>
>
> 1 en archē ēn o Logos kai o Logos ēn pros ton Theon kai Theos ēn o Logos
> 2 Outos ēn en archē pros ton Theon
>
> The proposed second line "KAI hWS hO QEOS (PATHR) hHN QEOS" is not in the
> text.
> It is confusing. What is the meaning of God father is God?
>
> I do not understand what one may gain from altaration of the text.
> Do we want to correct the Holy Spirit that guided the authors?
>
Hi Nikolaos,
Have I led you somehow to misunderstand? The second line is, of
course, not in the text. I am not proposing a change to the text, nor
showing 'altaration' of the text.
As I phrased in the post, my question was whether the text can be
understood with such as an "ellipsis" to help clarify the third line,
or rather an attempt to make implict explicit [thanks to Iver for
this]. The meaning of the second and the third lines I had in mind is
something like a logical argument for a declaration: 'As the Father
is God-being, so is the Son'.
My question was not on a theological-doctrinal level but on a
semantic. But, to me, it may be a solution to what seems contradictory
statements in most English translations 'The Word was God' and 'the
Word was with God'. What NEB renders Jn 1:1c is simple, clear, and
precise, though somewhat wordy - "What God was, the Word was." It is
completely devoid of any linguistic confusion.
Oun Kwon.
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list