Re: Jn.3:8 PNEUMA, PNEI, FONHN

From: Jack Kilmon (jkilmon@historian.net)
Date: Sat Jul 04 1998 - 12:54:27 EDT


Jim West wrote:

> At 09:06 AM 7/4/98 -0400, you wrote:
> >
> >It is interesting that the Hebrew word is just as ambigious. It this true for
> >Aramaic? For Latin? What did Jerome do here? What did Luther do? In what
> >language were the translators first forced to loose the ambiguity? Is there a
> >history to this?
> >
>
> Luther- "Der Wind blaest, wo er will, und du hoerst sein Sausen wohl..."
> French- "Le vent souffle ou il veut, et tu en entends le bruit..."
> Vulgate- "Spiritus, ubi vult, spirat, et vocem eius audis..."
> Italian- "Il vento soffia dove vuole: uno lo sente, ma non puo dire da dove
> viene..."
> Danish- "Vinden blaeser. hvorhen den vil, og du hoerer den suse, men du ved
> ikke, hvor den kommer fra..."
> Hebrew- "ha ruach nosheveth hecan shehi' rotsah weeth qolah 'atah shomea'..."
>
> Several of these version note the ambiguity and offer the appropriate
> variant. As you can see, most translate with "wind" rather than "spirit".
> The vulgate, as well as the Hebrew, retain the ambiguity.
> But the French, German, Italian and Danish all offer "wind".

The relationship between the Hebrew rwx (RUawch), Aramaic rwx) (RUcha)
and the Greek PNEUMA (I pronounce it nevMA) has always fascinated me,
particulary since the Hebrew n$mh (neSHAma) as in Gen 2:7, and the Aramaic
n$m) (nishMAW) seems to have the same connotation.

Even as a kid, I thought the term "Holy Ghost" was silly.

As one who is often the first to pounce on the Greek neglect of the Semitic
idiom in Biblical exegesis, I thought I might find a clue in the Greek Classics
but a review of Aeschylus, Aristotle, Thucydides, etc gave me just as much
ambiguity. I was looking for some etymological point of juncture where
movement of air such as "wind" in the classics as ANEMWN PNEUMATA
(where pneumata is the movement and anemwn is "wind") where pneumata
moved from descriptive of movement of air to actually "wind" as synonymous
with anemwn.

   I think that "breath" was the most frequent meaning and it is not hard to
follow a semantic track to "spirit" since the paradigm that God or a god
"breathed" the life into humankind in most ANE and Mediterranean
cultures was common. A semantic track from "spirit" to "mind" is
therefore understandable.

    I think the word, however, "came of age" through the NT Greek
usage for Hebrew rwx and Aramaic rwx) and cannot help that it's
use as "breath" appears only once or twice in the NT (Acts 17:25)
AS PNOH where this form is used for n$mh in the LXX.

   It may be interesting to explore the different imagery behind the
rwx( qd$) in Jewish thought against the PNEUMATI AGIW in
Hellenistic thought.

Jack
jkilmon@historian.net

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