[B-Greek] John 3:3-4 (was Ambiguity)

yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Sat Feb 6 15:03:21 EST 2010


The Syriac translation of ANWQEN in John 3 is given in two ways, reflecting its ambiguous meaning in Greek:

3:5, 7 (also translates πάλιν PALIN in 2 Cor. 3:1 πάλιν, 1 Peter 1:3, ANA in ἀναγεννήσας ANAGENNHSAS, Jude 20 translates intensive EPI in ἐποικοδομοῦντες EPOIKODOMOUNTES as "again")

ܡܬܝܠܕ ܡܢ ܕܪܝܫ
mtyld mn dryš 
γεννηθη ανωθεν
GENNHQH ANWQEN
=from beginning, anew, from head, re-

3:31
ܗܘ ܓܝܪ ܕܡܢ ܠܥܠ ܐܬܐ ܠܥܠ ܡܢ ܟܠ
hw gyr dmn l'l 't' l'l mn kl hw
Ὁ ἄνωθεν ἐρχόμενος ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν
hO ANWQEN ERCOMENOS EPANW PANTWN ESTIN

The Syriac "from head" means "again," or "from the beginning." And when the Peshitta translators were faced with a clearly spacial meaning of ANWQEN, they had a different, completely unambiguous way of translating ANWQEN, similar to the Hebrew phrase, מעל, the rough equivalent of which in Syriac is dmn l'l.

However, it would be a bit rash to depend upon a play on words in Greek with ANWQEN to demonstrate that the story in John 3 was a whole-cloth creation of the later church with no roots in the Aramaic Jesus tradition.


Yancy Smith, PhD
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
yancy at wbtc.com
5636 Wedgworth Road
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565






On Feb 5, 2010, at 11:22 PM, Iver Larsen wrote:

> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Yancy Smith" <yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net>
> To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: 6. februar 2010 01:44
> Subject: [B-Greek] John 3:3-4 (was Ambiguity)
> 
> 
>> The Syriac Peshitta has two different constructions ܡܶܬ݂ܺܝܠܶܕ݂ ܡܶܢ ܕ݁ܪܺܝܫ MeTiYLeD MeN DRiYSH "born from above/head" and  ܬ݁ܽܘܒ݂ TWB, again.
> 
> 
> Does this "above/head" suggest the possibility that there is a different expression in Aramaic or Hebrew that ANWQEN could translate apart from the suggested me'al (מעל)?
> 
> The Hebrew "rosh" has a wide range of meanings including "top, beginning", but I am not aware of any expression "from head" to mean "from the beginning/source" or "all over again from the top, a fresh start" as can be implied meaning of ANWQEN. But then, my knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic is very limited.
> 
> Iver Larsen
> Iver Larsen 




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