[b-greek] Re: Antecedent in Jn 19.34, 35

From: c stirling bartholomew (cc.constantine@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Mon Mar 11 2002 - 15:11:30 EST


on 3/11/02 8:29 AM, Polycarp66@aol.com wrote:

> Fellow b-geekers,
>
> In Jn 19.34, 35 we read
>
> 34 ALLą HEIS TWN STRATIWTWN LOGXHi AUTOU THN PLEURAN ENUCEN, KAI ECHLQEN
> EUQUS hAIMA KAI hUDWR. 35 KAI hO hEWRAKWS MEMARTURHKEN, KAI ALHQINH AUTOU
> ESTIN hH MARTURIA, KAI EKEINOS OIDEN hOTI ALHQH LEGEI, hINA KAI hUMEIS
> PISTEUSHTE.
>
> I thought this was a rather interesting question regarding what the referent
> of hO hEWRAKWS MEMARTURHKEN, etc. might be.  I see 3 possibilities:
>
> 1. If we take the normal structure of passages, this would refer to the
> immediately preceding agent ­ hOI STRATIWTAI (well, one of them ­ perhaps
> even the one with the spear).
>
> 2. The author of this gospel, e.g., in Rev. 1.2, it is the apocalypticist,
> the author of the writing who witnesses łTON LOGON TOU QEOU KAI THN MARTURIAN
> IHSOU XRISTOU hOSA EIDEN..
>
> 3. TON MAQHHN . . . hON HGAPA of 19.26 whether or not this disciple is
> considered to be the author of the gospel.
>  
> 2 & 3 might be one and the same (or at least presented as such).
>

George,

One antecedent which you have not mentioned is MARIA H MAGDALHNH. She is
introduced as a participant in Jn 19:25 and becomes a major participant in
Jn 20:1ff. We might see Mary Mag. here as the true witness ( KAI ALHQINH
AUTOU ESTIN hH MARTURIA) and there are at least two possible explanations
for the minor grammatical difficulties (gender inflection of the article,
participle and pronoun). It can probably be explained as later editing of
the text by the church patriarchs to mask MARIA H MAGDALHNH's role as the
true witness. Look at the text in Swanson and you will see evidence that
some editing has taken place at this point, although the gender issue
doesn't come up in the variants, the church patriarchs having done an
excellent job of eradication of the original text. Another solution is that
the masculine forms here are being used generically which is common enough.

In light of MARIA H MAGDALHNH's introduction to the scene in Jn 19:25 and
her discourse prominence in Jn 20:1ff, she seems to be a good candidate for
the true witness and perhaps she is also the author of John's Gospel, but we
can't get into authorship issues on b-greek.

For and enlightening discussion of MARIA H MAGDALHNH's role in recent gospel
scholarship an invaluable resource is:

Philip Jenkins, Hidden Gospels - How the Search for Jesus Lost its Way,
Oxford 2001.

Jenkins is an Historian from Penn. State U. and he seems to have done a
good job of putting this whole issue in its proper light.

Clay

--
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062



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