Why three different forms of the same word?

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Barry Hofstetter
Posts: 2159
Joined: May 6th, 2011, 1:48 pm

Re: Why three different forms of the same word?

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Note that a similar variety of forms pertains in the LXX:

Gen 8:6 Καὶ ἐγένετο μετὰ τεσσεράκοντα ἡμέρας ἠνέῳξεν Νῶε τὴν θυρίδα τῆς κιβωτοῦ ἣν ἐποίησεν...

Gen 30:22 ἐμνήσθη δὲ ὁ θεὸς Ῥαχήλ· καὶ ἐπήκουσεν αὐτῆς ὁ θεός, καὶ ἀνέῳξεν αὐτῆς τὴν μήτραν·

What's unusual about John 19 is that we have so many occurrences of the word within such a short proximity. I'm wondering if people at the time really would have even noticed this? I seem to recall one or two other instances where alternate forms are used in close proximity, but I can't for the life of me right now remember where... :?
N.E. Barry Hofstetter, M.A., Th.M.
Ph.D. Student U of FL
Instructor of Latin
Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
καὶ σὺ τὸ σὸν ποιήσεις κἀγὼ τὸ ἐμόν. ἆρον τὸ σὸν καὶ ὕπαγε.
S Walch
Posts: 281
Joined: June 13th, 2011, 4:27 pm
Location: Manchester, UK

Re: Why three different forms of the same word?

Post by S Walch »

Checking the LXX, the forms ανεωξεν and ηνεωξεν are used very rarely outside of Genesis (variant readings aside on this, btw), or indeed, all that much in Genesis:

ανεωξεν: Gen 21:19, 30:22, 41:56; 2 Chron 29:3; Ps 77:23
ηνεωξεν: Gen 8:6; 3 Macc 6:18

ηνοιξεν appears to be the more "popular" form (including in GJohn, if we take the NA28 text), appearing 22 times: Gen 29:31; Num 22:28; Judg 4:19 (x2), 15:19, 19:27 (x2); 1 Sam 3:15; 2 Kings 4:35, 9:10; 2 Kings 13:17; Neh 8:5; Tob 11:16; 1 Macc 3:28; Job 3:1; Wis of Sol 10:21; Isa 37:14; Jer 27:25; Ezek 33:22; Sus 1:25; Dan 6:11

Should also note that outside of GJohn (variant readings aside - I haven't checked), ανεωξεν and ηνεωξεν don't appear in any other NT book. ηνοιξεν appears in 2 others (Acts 9:40, 12:14, 14:27; Rev 6:1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 8:1, 9:2, 12:16, 13:6).

The only way to answer this question, really, would be to check other Greek literature of the time to see whether anyone else used the different spellings ανεωξεν/ηνεωξεν/ηνοιξεν, and which one was used the most.

Judging on the usage in both the LXX and NT, I would presume that the readers of GJohn would have noticed the different usages of ανεωξεν/ηνεωξεν, compared to the more popular ηνοιξεν.
David Lim
Posts: 901
Joined: June 6th, 2011, 6:55 am

Re: Why three different forms of the same word?

Post by David Lim »

Barry Hofstetter wrote:What's unusual about John 19 is that we have so many occurrences of the word within such a short proximity. I'm wondering if people at the time really would have even noticed this? I seem to recall one or two other instances where alternate forms are used in close proximity, but I can't for the life of me right now remember where... :?
Is it "σκοτια" = "σκοτος"? They occur in close proximity in:
Luke 11:53, 12:3
1 John 1:5,6, 2:11
δαυιδ λιμ
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