John 1:5
τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ
Both Light (φῶς) and darkness (σκοτίᾳ) are articular.
Does the use of the article, in this particular case, indicate some type of equivalence? Can they be converted?
John
Robertson, pp.768-769 wrote:In a word, then, when the article occurs with subject (or the subject is a personal pronoun or proper name) and predicate, both are definite, treated as identical, one and the same, and interchangeable. The usage applies to substantives, adjectives and participles indifferently. Cf.. . . ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς (Jo. 1:4), . . ., etc. This list is not exhaustive, but it is sufficient to illustrate the points involved.
John Brainard wrote:So we could translate this as "And the Life was the Light of men".
Would that be correct?
David Lim wrote:John Brainard wrote:So we could translate this as "And the Life was the Light of men".
Would that be correct?
Yes that is one possible translation, though I can never figure out what exactly this kind of capitalization (of "Life") means. That said, although I agree that the two noun phrases refer to one and the same entity; "the life was the light of men" and "the light of men was the life"; it remains to see what the author means by "the light of men" and how "the life" is supposed to be that. That cannot be answered by the syntax but only by the context.
John Brainard wrote:There are varying opinions on the term "the light of men". I haven't developed one yet. would love to hear your thoughts on it.
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