[B-Greek] Syntax of Rev 21:3e

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Mar 14 17:06:25 EDT 2011


καὶ ἤκουσα φωνῆς μεγάλης ἐκ τοῦ θρόνου λεγούσης·
ἰδοὺ ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ σκηνώσει μετʼ αὐτῶν, καὶ αὐτοὶ λαοὶ 
αὐτοῦ ἔσονται, καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς μετʼ αὐτῶν ἔσται [αὐτῶν θεός],
 
KAI HKOUSA FWNHS MEGALHS EK TOU QRONOU LEGOUSHS

IDOU hH SKHNH TOU QEOU META TWN ANQRWPWN, KAI SKHNWSEI MET' AUTWN, KAI AUTOI 
LAOI AUTOU ESONTAI, KAI AUTOS hO QEOS MET' AUTWN ESTAI [AUTWN QEOS]

"John" never actually quotes a passage from the OT, but he does make obvious 
references to them and frequently adapts them to serve his own purpose.  In this 
case he seems to be referencing Ezek 37.27
καὶ ἔσται ἡ κατασκήνωσίς μου ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἔσομαι αὐτοῖς θεός, καὶ αὐτοί μου 
ἔσονται λαός.

In Re 22.3 he first announces that God's "tent" will be among men and 
essentially repeats it by saying that he will dwell among them.  This statement 
and its repetition represents the first portion of Ezek 37.27.  He then 
announces that God will himself be with them.  This could be considered to cover 
the second portion of the statement of Ezek 37.27.  If we take αὐτῶν θεός AUTWN 
QEOS as part of the original text, it must then be somewhat of a repetition of 
the preceding.  If we accept αὐτῶν θεός AUTWN QEOS as part of the text, I would 
not take it so much as an appositive as a pred nom -- "The same God 
with them shall be their God." For the use of an 
anarthrous αὐτός AUTOS preceding an arthrous θεός QEOS cf Josephus, _Wars_ 
7.346 


  
ἀόρατος μένουσα τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις ὄμμασιν 
        ὥσπερ αὐτὸς ὁ θεός·
 
AORATOS MENOUSA TOIS ANQRWPINOIS OMMASIN hWSPER AUTOS hO QEOS

 george
gfsomsel 


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________ 




________________________________
From: Stephen Carlson <stemmatic at gmail.com>
To: Biblical Greek Mailing List <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Mon, March 14, 2011 12:39:41 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Syntax of Rev 21:3e

I'll be going over Rev 21:1-7 in my Greek class on Thursday, and I've
found a syntactically confusing passage I'd appreciate your thoughts
on.  The sentence is the fifth clause of Rev 21:3, which reads as
follows:

καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς μετ᾽ αὐτῶν ἔσται [αὐτῶν θεός],

KAI AUTOS hO QEOS MET' AUTWN ESTAI [AUTWN QEOS].

If we delete the bracketed portion, as do many manuscripts, the clause
seems fairly straight-forward: "and God himself will be with them."

With the bracketed portion, the syntax confuses me.  Many translations
add an "and": "and be their God," but I think this is cheating.  Other
possibilities are to take the bracketed portion as an appositive: "and
God himself will be with them, their God."

The commentaries I have consulted have not been too helpful.  Charles
(ICC) discussed various textual variants only to obelize the entire
clause (i.e., to mark it as corrupt).

What say the denizens of B-Greek?

Stephen
--
Stephen C. Carlson
Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University
---
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KAI ESTAI hH KATASKHNWSIS MOU EN AUTOIS, KAI ESOMAI AUTOIS QEOS, KAI AUTOI MOU 
ESONTAI LAOS.


      


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