Re: Grammatical errors in Revelation?

From: Dale M. Wheeler (dalemw@teleport.com)
Date: Wed May 19 1999 - 01:00:54 EDT


Well, since everyone else was putting in their $0.02 worth, I thought I
would as well, since my view is fairly different from anything else said on
the topic... (-:

There are two other views as to why John wrote such bad Greek:

1) Darryl Schmidt (the editor of the revision to BDF going on right now)
has written an article (I'm at home and don't have access to it, but I'll
get the reference if you'all want it) on the topic, and he has suggested
that John deliberately imitated the style of the prophetic/apocalyptic
sections of the LXX, thus the "bad" Greek. If he's correct, then the
deliberate stylistic imitation is to reinforce the validity and power of
his message. It seems to me that there is a great deal to be said for this
approach, but, I'd suggest perhaps another solution...

2) John was hearing all of what transpired in Hebrew, and was translating
it "on the fly" as he recorded it in Greek; thus the "bad" translation
Greek. Yes, yes, I know that would mean he would have to be a very fast
writer, and there are structural considerations, etc. The good news is,
for us Hebrew Profs, that they speak Hebrew in heaven; the bad new is, for
us Greek Profs, that they don't speak Greek... (-:

BTW, either of these suggestions solves for me the real problem of Eph 1
that Carl has pointed out, ie., Eph 1:3-14 is formally an OT Hebrew Psalm
Form (Baruk Praise), and Paul has used a whole bunch of Hebrew structural
forms to put the whole thing together and indicate where the units and
sub-units are (Relative Particle/Pronouns; Substantival Ptcs; Repetition of
Renewed Calls to Praise...didn't I once post an outline to this section to
bgreek ??), which are not typical of Greek rhetoric.

Well, that's my $0.02 worth...

XAIREIN...

***********************************************************************
Dale M. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Research Professor in Biblical Languages Multnomah Bible College
8435 NE Glisan Street Portland, OR 97220
Voice: 503-251-6416 FAX:503-254-1268 E-Mail: dalemw@teleport.com
***********************************************************************

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