Re: John 2:8

From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Sep 15 1998 - 13:48:08 EDT


Mark QL Louderback wrote:
>
> John 2:8--
> AVTLHSATE NUN KAI FERETE TW ARXITPIKLINW
>
> Question: Where is the water being drawn from?
>
> Does the verb (and context) demand that the water is being drawn
> from a place other than the jars which have just been filled? Does
> the NUN indicate that in addition to drawing the water for the jars
> that now water should be drawn (again) and taken to the steward?
>
> Or does the context suggest this is all reading way too much into a
> few words. The water was drawn from the jars at hand and not from
> another location.
>

Mark,

It is the discourse structure and not the meaning of AVTLHSATE or the use NUN
that determines where the water was drawn from. I checked H.A.W. Meyer,
Godet, R. Brown, Leon Morris, and Westcott. Westcott is the source of the
problem here and both Morris and Brown think he is wrong. The older
commentators don't even mention the problem.

Granted, the word AVTLHSATE is used for drawing water from a well but the word
is only used 4 times in the NT and only in John. Liddle and Scott site the
word in the context of bailing a boat which would fit the normal
interpretation of this verse, drawing water from the stone jars.

Westcott's argument that NUN supports his interpretation is also hard to
swallow. I do not see how NUN even applies to his argument much less supports
it. I would paraphrase NUN, "now that you have filled the jars, draw some out
and . . ."

Westcott's reading of NUN in this context sounds like it might have been
conjured up by Bill Clinton's legal defense team.

-- 
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062

PostScript

Westcott's interpretations are always worth considering, he was a very thorough scholar and I have and use all of his commentaries.

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