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John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ

Posted: April 1st, 2014, 9:57 am
by grogers
Perhaps someone can offer me an explanation for what seems to be a overwhelmingly accepted translation of the this verse by the body of scholarship. In the vast majority of the English translations τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ is translated as "The wind blows where it wishes." I find this rather interesting since in the 383 times that πνεῦμα appears in the NT in its various forms, it is translated as spirit in every case except in John 3:8. Is there something I am missing here?

Re: John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ

Posted: April 1st, 2014, 10:30 am
by Barry Hofstetter
grogers wrote:Perhaps someone can offer me an explanation for what seems to be a overwhelmingly accepted translation of the this verse by the body of scholarship. In the vast majority of the English translations τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ is translated as "The wind blows where it wishes." I find this rather interesting since in the 383 times that πνεῦμα appears in the NT in its various forms, it is translated as spirit in every case except in John 3:8. Is there something I am missing here?
It's a contextual issue. πνεὖμα here is the subject of πνεἶ, and this would trigger in the mind of most readers which part of the semantic range of πνεὖμα is in the author's mind. There is also the comparison. To understand πνεὖμα here as "Spirit" would rob the analogy of its force.

Re: John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ

Posted: April 1st, 2014, 10:49 am
by grogers
It's a contextual issue. πνεὖμα here is the subject of πνεἶ, and this would trigger in the mind of most readers which part of the semantic range of πνεὖμα is in the author's mind. There is also the comparison. To understand πνεὖμα here as "Spirit" would rob the analogy of its force.
Well, possibly, but isn't the force of this analogy created solely on the translation of πνεὖμα as wind? I understand the various possible rendering of πνεὖμα but what would this change in one's understanding of this verse if it is translated "The spirit breaths where it wills"?

Re: John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ

Posted: April 1st, 2014, 11:47 am
by cwconrad
grogers wrote:
It's a contextual issue. πνεὖμα here is the subject of πνεἶ, and this would trigger in the mind of most readers which part of the semantic range of πνεὖμα is in the author's mind. There is also the comparison. To understand πνεὖμα here as "Spirit" would rob the analogy of its force.
Well, possibly, but isn't the force of this analogy created solely on the translation of πνεὖμα as wind? I understand the various possible rendering of πνεὖμα but what would this change in one's understanding of this verse if it is translated "The spirit breaths where it wills"?
Perhaps I'm simply saying what's obvious, but the fact that πνευμα in Greek, like ruach in Hebrew and spiritus in Latin, is a metaphoric extension from verbs in these same languages that can mean both "blow" and "breathe" would seem to indicate that the analogy is being drawn to comparable instances of unpredictability in the volatile "substance" for which these languages use the single word.

Re: John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ

Posted: April 1st, 2014, 11:50 am
by Jonathan Robie
grogers wrote:... in the 383 times that πνεῦμα appears in the NT in its various forms, it is translated as spirit in every case except in John 3:8.
Really? Check out the translations of the passages listed for various senses here:

http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/resources ... tml#πνεῦμα

Re: John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ

Posted: April 1st, 2014, 12:16 pm
by grogers
Jonathan Robie wrote:
Really? Check out the translations of the passages listed for various senses here:

http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/resources ... tml#πνεῦμα
Thanks a lot for the link. This is a bigger help than biblehub.

Re: John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ

Posted: April 1st, 2014, 12:18 pm
by grogers
cwconrad wrote: Perhaps I'm simply saying what's obvious, but the fact that πνευμα in Greek, like ruach in Hebrew and spiritus in Latin, is a metaphoric extension from verbs in these same languages that can mean both "blow" and "breathe" would seem to indicate that the analogy is being drawn to comparable instances of unpredictability in the volatile "substance" for which these languages use the single word.
Yes, that makes sense.