[B-Greek] John3 3,7 revisited ?born again?
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Apr 21 00:37:18 EDT 2009
3ἀπεκρίθη Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ·ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν, οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.
3 APEKRIQH IHSOUS KAI EIPEN AUTWi, "AMHN, AMHN, LEGW SOI 'EAN MH TIS GENNHQHi ANWQEN, OU DUNATAI IDEIN THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU'"
It seems to me that we have a "Who's on first" situation in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus says "You must be born from above (ANWQEN)" while Nicodemus understands "You must be born again (ANWQEN)." That Nicodemus understands this to mean "again" is evidenced by the fact that he asks,
πῶς δύναται ἄνθρωπος γεννηθῆναι γέρων ὤν;μὴ δύναται εἰς τὴν κοιλίαν τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ δεύτερον εἰσελθεῖν καὶ γεννηθῆναι;
PWS DUNATAI ANQRWPOS GENNHQHNAI GERWN WN? MH DUNATAI EIS THN KOILIAN THS MHTROS AUTOU DEUTERON EISELQEIN KAI GENNHQHNAI?
That Jesus is speaking of being born "from above" is evident from the fact that he says
ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος, οὐ δύναται εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.
EAN MH TIS GENNHQHi EC hUDATOS KAI PNEUMATOS, OU DUNATAI EISELQEIN EIS THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU
The translations have generally made the two uses the same though the NRSV seems to get it right
3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jn 3:2-4). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
So, "Who's on first?"
george
gfsomsel
… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.
- Jan Hus
_________
________________________________
From: frank boumphrey <koinebible at gmail.com>
To: B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 9:54:15 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] John3 3,7 revisited ?born again?
My question is how did γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν - GENNHQHi ANWQEN get its translation
in the KJV and its immitators of 'born again'?
In several translations γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν - GENNHQHi ANWQEN is translated as
'born again'' rather than 'born from above'. My (Intermediate) Liddel and
Scott also gives this tanslation for NT. More recent translations that I
checked give the (?correct)translation 'from above'.
ἀπεκρίθη ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ
ἄνωθεν, οὐ δύναται ἰδεῖν τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.
APEKRIQH IHSOUS KAI EIPEN AUTWi, AMHN AMHN LEGW SOI, EAN MH TIS GENNHQHi
ANWQEN, OU DUNATAI IDEIN THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU.
Of the other ?13 occurences in the NT only John 3,3 and John 7
μὴ θαυμάσῃς ὅτι εἶπόν σοι, δεῖ ὑμᾶς γεννηθῆναι ἄνωθεν.
MH QAUMASHiS hOTI EIPON SOI, DEI UMAS GENNHQHNAI ANWQEN.
are given this translation by the KJV and immitators. I havn't checked out
the LXX
and Galatians 4 9 KJV translates it as 'anew'
νῦν δὲ γνόντες θεόν, μᾶλλον δὲ γνωσθέντες ὑπὸ θεοῦ, πῶς ἐπιστρέφετε πάλιν
ἐπὶ τὰ ἀσθενῆ καὶ πτωχὰ στοιχεῖα, οἷς πάλιν ἄνωθεν δουλεύειν θέλετε;
NUN DE GNONTES QEON, MALLON DE GNWSQENTES UPO QEOU, PWS EPISTREFETE PALIN
EPI TA ASQENH KAI PTWXA STOIXEIA, hOIS PALIN ANWQEN DOULEUEIN QELETE;
although here the more usual sense of 'from the begining' would fit
perfectly well.
Is this just a case of copying from older Translations or am I missing
something?
Frank Boumphrey
koinebible at gmail.com
www.biblegreek.net
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