John

[John Reece]

This is a non-debate reading and grammatical analysis thread.

Throughout this thread, entries in the section headed 'Analysis' will consist of excerpts from A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, by Max Zerwick and Mary Grosvenor (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1981).

Occasionally, the Analysis may include an entry headed BG: all such entries will consist of quotations from Biblical Greek: Illustrated by Examples, by Maximilian Zerwick S.J., English edition adapted from the fourth Latin edition by Joseph Smith S.J. (Scripta Pontificii Instituti Biblici: Rome, 1963).

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:1a):

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος

Transliteration:

En archȩ̄ ēn ho logos

Translation (ESV)

In the beginning was the Word

Analysis (Zerwick):

ἀρχή : beginning ; ἐν ἀρχῇ = Gen 1:1, a deliberate allusion, hence "when all things (the universe, verse 3) began".
ἦν : imperfect of εἰμί be, imperfect of duration, was, was in existence; the fourfold ἦν opposite ἐγένετο (verse 3).
λόγος : word, here personal.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:1b):

καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν

Transliteration:

kai ho logos ēn pros ton theon

Translation (ESV)

and the Word was with God

Analysis (Zerwick):

λόγος : word, here personal.
πρός : with accusative in Hellenistic Greek = παρά with dative beside, with a person but in John apparently connoting towards (a person) .*

*[T]hough in John 1:18 Jesus is called the Only-begotten ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός, it would be an exaggeration to ascribe to the evangelist the intention of expressing by the use of εἰς the trinitarian relation of "esse ad" whereby the second divine Person is said to be constituted. Nor can one place great confidence in the confirmation of such an exegesis by recourse to 1:1: καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν (where one might have expected παρὰ τῷ θεῷ), because the Hellenistic neglect of the distinction between rest and motion causes a confusion, similar to that between εἰς and ἐν, between the accusative and the dative with πρός; it is true however, that elsewhere in John πρός seems always (about 100 times!) to be used in a dynamic sense, (which in our case may be understood as one of personal relationship) while the sense "with someone" is always rendered with παρά with the dative, ...; or by μετά with the genitive (about 20 times).

A further argument in favor of the view that a special meaning is to be attached to the use of εἰς in 1:18 and of πρός in 1:1 can be found in the fact that the fourth gospel offers scarcely any other example (20:7?) to suggest a neglect of the distinction between εἰς and ἐν. .... ― Finally it is noteworthy that even the book of Revelation, whose language is more vulgar than that of any other book of the NT, and which can certainly be attributed to John himself even as regards its form, does not confuse εἰς and ἐν (BG § 102-3).

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:1c):

καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος

Transliteration:

kai theos ēn ho logos

Translation (ESV)

and the Word was God

Analysis (Zerwick):

θεός : "the Word was divine", predicate without article insisting on the nature of the Word.*

*Hence it is sometimes stated as a "rule" that "the article is not used in the predicate". In fact, predicates commonly lack the article, but this is not in virtue of any "rule" about predicates in particular, but in virtue of the universal rule; for in the nature of things, the predicate commonly refers not to an individual or individuals as such, but to the class to which the subject belongs, to the nature or quality predicated of the subject; e.g. John 1:1 καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος, which attributes to the Word the divine nature (ὁ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος, at least in NT usage, would signify personal identity of the Word with the Father, since the latter is ὁ θεός) (BG §172).

Comment by D. A. Carson in The Gospel According to John (Pillar; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991):

.... More, the Word was God. That is the translation demanded by the Greek structure, theos ēn ho logos. A long string of writers has argued that because theos, 'God', here has no article, John is not referring to God as a specific being, but to mere qualities of 'God-ness'. The Word, they say, was not God, but divine. This will not do. There is a perfectly serviceable word in Greek for 'divine' (namely theios). More importantly, there are many places in the New Testament where the predicate noun has no article, and yet is specific. Even in this chapter, 'you are the King of Israel' (1:49) has no article before 'King' in the original (cf. also John 8:39; 17:17; Rom. 14:17; Gal. 4:25; Rev. 1:20). It has been shown that it is common for a definite predicate noun in this construction, placed before the verb, to be anarthrous (that is, to have no article; ...). Indeed, the effect of ordering the words this way is to emphasize 'God', as if John were saying, 'and the word was God!' In fact, if John had included the article, he would have been saying something quite untrue. He would have been so identifying the Word with God that no divine being could exist apart from the Word. In that case, it would be nonsense to say (in the words of the second clause of this verse) that the Word was with God. The 'Word does not Himself make up the entire Godhead; nevertheless the divinity that belongs to the rest of the Godhead belongs also to Him' (Tasker, p. 45). 'The Word was with God, God's eternal Fellow; the Word was God, God's own Self.'**

**Edmund P. Clowney, 'A Biblical Theology of Prayer', in D. A. Carson (ed.), Teach Us to Pray: Prayer in the Bible and the World (Paternoster/Baker, 1990).

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:2):

οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.

Transliteration:

houtos ēn en archȩ̄ pros ton theon.

Translation (ESV)

He was in the beginning with God.

Analysis (Zerwick):

οὗτος : demonstrative pronoun: this person or thing ; this one.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:3a):

πάντα δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο

Transliteration:

panta di' autou egeneto

Translation (NJB)

Through him all things came into being

Analysis (Zerwick):

δι᾿ = διά : (with genitive) through, of an instrumental cause (...).
ἐγένετο : aorist of γίνομαι become, come into being.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:3b):

καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν.

Transliteration:

kai chōris autou egeneto oude hen.

Translation (NJB)

not one thing came into being except through him.

Analysis (Zerwick):

χωρίς : (with genitive) without, apart from.
ἐγένετο : aorist of γίνομαι become, come into being.
οὐδὲ ἕν : not a single thing.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:3):

πάντα δι᾿ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. ὃ γέγονεν

Transliteration:

panta di' autou egeneto, kai chōris autou egeneto oude hen. ho gegonen

Translation (Carson)

All things were made by him, and what was made was in no way made without him.

Comment in The Gospel According to John (Pillar; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), by D. A. Carson:

Assuming that the NIV accurately represents the relation between verse 3 and verse 4 (...), and rightly renders the Greek, then verse 3 simply insists, both positively and negatively, that the Word was God's agent in the creation of all that exists. Positively, Through him all things were made; negatively, without him nothing was made that has been made is then the change in reference from the act of creation to the state of creation. Even so, the latter is a strange form of expression. It may be better to render the Greek, 'All things were made by him, and what was made (taking ho gegonen as the subject of the second clause) was in no way (taking ouden adverbially) made without him.' Either way, the point is powerfully made. Just as in Genesis, where everything that came into being did so because of God's spoken word, and just as in Proverbs 3:19; 8:30, where Wisdom is the (personified) means by which all exists, so here: God's word, understood in the Prologue to be a personal agent, created everything.

Analysis (Zerwick):

χωρίς : (with genitive) without, apart from.
ἐγένετο : aorist of γίνομαι become, come into being.
οὐδὲ ἕν : not a single thing.
γέγονεν : perfect of γίνομαι: ὃ γέγονεν that came into existence ; some editions punctuate with full point after γέγονεν "... was not anything made that was made" (cf. Wm, RSV). Taken with what follows ὃ γέγονεν ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν "that which has come to be was life in him" (cf Wm and RSV margin, NEB, JB).

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:4):

ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων

Transliteration:

en autō̧ zōē ēn, kai hē zōē ēn to phōs tōn anthrōpōn

Translation (ESV)

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Analysis (Zerwick):

ἦν : [[variant ἐστιν]].*

*1:4 ἦν {A} In order to relieve the difficulty of meaning when ὃ γέγονεν (ver. 3) is taken as the subject of ἦν (“that–which–has–come–into–being in him was life”), the tense of the verb was changed from imperfect to present (ἐστιν) in ℵ D Old Latin syrc copsa, fay and many early ecclesiastical writers. The presence, however, of the second ἦν (in the clause ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς) seems to require the first. ―Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:5a):

καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει

Transliteration:

kai to phōs en tȩ̄ skotia̧ phainei

Translation (ESV)

The light shines in the darkness

Analysis (Zerwick):

σκοτίᾳ : darkness, with ethical content.
φαίνω : intransitive shine, present because stating the essential nature of light.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:5b):

καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

Transliteration:

kai hē skotia auto ou katelaben.

Translation (ESV)

and the darkness has not overcome it.

Analysis (Zerwick):

κατέλαβεν : aorist of καταλαμβάνω seize, grasp, comprehend ; also overtake, suppress.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:6):

Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος, ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης·

Transliteration:

Egeneto anthrōpos, apestalmenos para theou, onoma autō̧ Iōannēs;

Translation (ESV)

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

Analysis (Zerwick):

ἐγένετο : (aorist of γίνομαι) came, appeared.
ἀπεσταλμένος : perfect passive participle of ἀποστέλλω send.
παρά : with genitive of person from ; or, in Hellenistic Greek may stand for ὑπό by.
ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης : a parenthesis : "(the) name to him (was) John", his name was John.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:7a):

οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός

Transliteration:

houtos ēlthen eis martyrian hina martyrēsȩ̄ peri tou phōtos

Translation (ESV)

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light

Analysis (Zerwick):

εἰς : with a view to, for (the purpose of).
μαρτυρία : testimony ; εἰς μαρτυρίαν to witness.
μαρτυρήσῃ : aorist subjunctive of μαρτυρέω bear witness.

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:7b):

ἵνα πάντες πιστεύσωσιν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ.

Transliteration:

hina pantes pisteusōsin di' autou.

Translation (ESV)

that all might believe through him.

Analysis (Zerwick):

πιστεύσωσιν : aorist subjunctive of πιστεύω ; aorist inceptive, come to believe.*
δι᾿ : verse 3.

*The inceptive aorist. The aorist calls for special attention in verbs which of their nature indicate a state; with these verbs the aorist commonly (but not necessarily) indicates the inception of the state, and this may demand a different translation... (BG §250).

[John Reece]

NA27 Text (John 1:8):

οὐκ ἦν ἐκεῖνος τὸ φῶς, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός.

Transliteration:

ouk ēn ekeinos to phōs, all' hina martyrēsȩ̄ peri tou phōtos.

Translation (ESV)

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Analysis (Zerwick):

ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ : sc. ἦλθεν (verse 7).