[B-Greek] Luke 1:17a AUTOU and its referent
Oun Kwon
kwonbbl at gmail.com
Sun Aug 15 23:09:52 EDT 2010
Lk 1:16-17a
1:16 KAI POLLOUS TWN UIWN ISRAHL EPISTREYEI
EPI KURION TON QEON AUTWN
1:17a KAI AUTOS PROELEUSETAI ENWPION AUTOU
EN PNEUMATI KAI DUNAMEI HLIOU
I'm trying to pinpoint the referent of the pronoun AUTOU in v. 17a.
My take is AUTOU = (KURIOS hO QEOS) as the closest one in the preceding verse.
While most keep it ambiguously as 'before the Lord', some read the
text "John as a forerunner before the Lord", as if taking AUTOU
refering to the Messiah. Some even explicitly so. Of course, John is a
forerunner of the Messiah and to read it that way makes a good sense.
However, is it is the way the text should be read?
Another point is about ENWPION - can it be just 'in the presence of'
rather than 'ahead of'? (An example is in v. 19 'Gabriel in the
presence of God'.)
Is there any way I can see it less confusingly?
Oun Kwon.
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