[B-Greek] John 2:4 - TI EMOI KAI SOI
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Thu Mar 19 16:26:32 EDT 2009
Nigel Turner has a section on this very passage in _Grammatical Insights into the New Testament_ titled "Madam, Leave This to Me (John 2:4). I'm not sure that I'm in complete agreement with him on this though I probably am not in great disagreement. It seems to me that something like "What's the point?" might be appropriate.
george
gfsomsel
… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.
- Jan Hus
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________________________________
From: Emil Salim <neokantian at gmail.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:55:26 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] John 2:4 - TI EMOI KAI SOI
Text:
KAI LEGEI AUTHi hO IHSOUS; TI EMOI KAI SOI, GUNAI? OUPW hHKEI hH hHWRA MOU.
I am aware that TI EMOI KAI SOI is a rather popular phrase that means "what
have I to do with thee?" (see Smyth #1479, for example). Translated thus, it
sounds to me like Jesus didn't really care about Mary's concern that the
wedding party in Kana was running out of wine, as though Jesus was saying:
"why should I care about what you're concerned with?"
I was wondering, though, whether we can translate the phrase more literally
as saying: "what is it to me that is (also) to you?" This is admittedly an
awkward translation and not real English. But is it possible to translate
the phrase along this line: "what is my concern that is also your concern?"?
Rendered this way, the phrase might convey a different tone, viz., that
Jesus was asking Mary whether *she* was concerned with what's important for
him, and not the other way around. Thanks!
Emil Salim
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