John 12:49

From: DWILKINS@ucrac1.ucr.edu
Date: Sat Sep 28 1996 - 16:35:00 EDT


Another interesting construction, Dale; and no apology needed on "bashing".
My experience in computer programming as well as Bible translation has
taught me that bug reports are really a very good thing, albeit sometimes a
little painful.
John's construction is not what we might expect (something like hO PATHR hO
PEMYSAS, or perhaps the reverse), and without an article before PATHR the
most likely construction intended is that the article actually goes with
PATHR, being modified by the participial phrase. In that case, taking AUTOS
as the intensive adjective/pronoun with PATHR is normal (which is why NASB
has "The Father Himself", only moving "Himself" up in the word order is
done for smoother Eng.). With some added punctuation, though, the alterna-
tives you suggest are certainly plausible; e.g. "The one who sent me is (the)
Father; he himself has given..." or "The one who sent me, (the) Father, he
himself...". I will refrain from accusing John of awkward or bad Greek, be-
cause I believe he was competent enough to say what he meant, especially if
we factor in occasional Hebraisms (probably not here, though).

Don Wilkins
UC Riverside



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