John 21:7 τὸν ἐπενδύτην διεζώσατο - acc with middle
Posted: January 9th, 2017, 2:49 pm
Putting his clothes on and the diving into the water never made much sense to me in the English, but in the Greek, it seems that there are two ways of reading the τὸν ἐπενδύτην διεζώσατο.
For the ἦν γὰρ γυμνός, I don't think the γὰρ allows for a "so that he could remain naked to swim", but it doesn't necessarily imply that he needed to be dully clothed at that moment, but that he took the clothes to shore with him as he swam, to wring out and put on, when he got to shore. I'm thinking that a large outer garment, with an cross over design tied with a single waist cord, would be swum out of to some extent as the loose-fitting weight of it was held back by the water. So then if the swimmer''s arms were not fouled in it, he would still need to at put it back on his shoulders when he reached land, and would probably need to take it off and wring it out, to be able to wear it well.
Does the accusative with a middle allow for a reading other than that he put it on, tying it with a waist chord?
διεζώσατο means he wrapped something around his waist. Either it is the waist chord of the outer garment, or it is the rolled up outer garment itself. Just taken my experience in water safety classes in primary school as a reference, swimming 40 metres in a heavy outer garment, after tiring himself out fishing all night, would have been, well..., but wrapping it around his waist and tying the garment in a knot would not be too bulky and so leave his body free to move in the water, and would not take up the use of one or both of his arms to carry the clothes. Even tying the sleeves together around his waist, or tying up the coat in a bundle with the cord aound it and the other end around his waist might be okay.John 21:7,8 wrote:λέγει οὖν ὁ μαθητὴς ἐκεῖνος, ὃν ἠγάπα ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, τῷ Πέτρῳ· ὁ Κύριός ἐστι. Σίμων οὖν Πέτρος ἀκούσας ὅτι ὁ Κύριός ἐστι, τὸν ἐπενδύτην διεζώσατο· ἦν γὰρ γυμνός· καὶ ἔβαλεν ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν· οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι μαθηταὶ τῷ πλοιαρίῳ ἦλθον· οὐ γὰρ ἦσαν μακρὰν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς ἀπὸ πηχῶν διακοσίων,
For the ἦν γὰρ γυμνός, I don't think the γὰρ allows for a "so that he could remain naked to swim", but it doesn't necessarily imply that he needed to be dully clothed at that moment, but that he took the clothes to shore with him as he swam, to wring out and put on, when he got to shore. I'm thinking that a large outer garment, with an cross over design tied with a single waist cord, would be swum out of to some extent as the loose-fitting weight of it was held back by the water. So then if the swimmer''s arms were not fouled in it, he would still need to at put it back on his shoulders when he reached land, and would probably need to take it off and wring it out, to be able to wear it well.
Does the accusative with a middle allow for a reading other than that he put it on, tying it with a waist chord?