[B-Greek] Question on Jn. 4:2

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Nov 1 14:44:56 EDT 2010


  
John 4:2 - καίτοιγε Ἰησοῦς αὐτὸς οὐκ ἐβάπτιζεν ἀλλʼ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ - 
 
Raymond Brown in his 2 vol commentary on the GoJ translated this as "n fact, 
however, it was not Jesus himself who baptized, but his disciples" and notes 
regarding the passage:  

 
"2. not Jesus himself. This is clearly an attempt to modify 3:22, where it is 
said that Jesus did baptize, and serves as almost indisputable evidence of the 
presence of several hands in the composition of John. Perhaps the final redactor 
was afraid that the sectarians of John the Baptist would use Jesus’ baptizing as 
an argument that he was only an imitator of John the Baptist. The unusual word 
for "however" (kaitoi ge) may be another indication of a different hand."
 
I don't wish to get into the discussion of whether there was or was not more 
than one hand involved in the GoJ, but it seems clear that the idea contained in 
the passage is that it was the disciples who baptised (nominative case) and not 
the disciples who were baptised.
 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: Blue Meeksbay <bluemeeksbay at yahoo.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Mon, November 1, 2010 11:19:36 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Question on Jn. 4:2

Dear List,
 
-KAITOIGE IHSOUS AUTOS OUK EBAPTIZEN ALL᾽ hOI MAQHTAI AUTOU- Jn. 4:2
 
I have a question I hope someone can answer. John the Baptist, we know, would 
baptize anyone that came to him in repentance, whether they wished to become his 

disciple or not.  However, with Jesus, is there any grammatical rule that would 
allow the thought to be communicated that Jesus was not baptizing any and all 
that came to him, but only those persons who wished to be his disciples? If  
MAQHTAI was in the accusative, I think such a thought could be sustained,  but 
in the nominative???
 
Sincerely,
Blue Harris


      
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