[B-Greek] John 3:3-4 (was Ambiguity)
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Sun Feb 7 08:02:16 EST 2010
----- Original Message -----
From: <yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net>
To: "greek B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 6. februar 2010 23:03
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] John 3:3-4 (was Ambiguity)
> 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.
>
Thanks. My question to the Aramaic experts is:
Granted that Syriac has this expression "from head" meaning "again" or "from the
beginning", and granted that Syriac is related to Aramaic, is there any evidence
that Aramaic, too, had such an expression? Or don't we have enough evidence of
the language at that time to know if this is the case? (Even the unrelated
English has the capability to "start again from the top" in certain contexts,
meaning to start afresh.)
If there was such an expression, could not the same ambiguity have been played
out in Aramaic as is demonstrated in Greek? Presumably John would have known
both languages quite well. John very often in the gospel shows Jesus as using
riddles and metaphors that are misunderstood by his hearers, including his own
disciples.
Iver Larsen
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