RE: John 1:1-2

From: George Blaisdell (maqhth@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Mar 24 1999 - 15:35:10 EST


>From: "Bill Ross"

>{Jack} [George, actually]
>> A EN ARCH HN hO LOGOS
>> B KAI hO LOGOS HN PROS TON QEON
>> B' KAI QEON HN hO LOGOS
>> A' hOUTOS HN EN ARCH
>> PROS TON QEON
>
>{Bill}
>In a "Sleudian Frip" (oops, I mean "Freudian Slip") your B' phrase has
QEON
>(accusative) rather than QEOS (nominative). This seems like "how it
ought to
>be" (I am a little Greek), though it is actually QEOS, unless QEOS is
to be
>seen as an adjective.
>
>So my questions are:
>
>* is QEOS a noun in the nominative?
>* if so, couldn't it just as easily read AND GOD WAS [BEING] THE WORD?
>* is QEOS an adjective ("divine")?
>* if so, how can I tell the difference?

Bill ~

I am embarassed ~ OF COURSE it is QEOS!!!

I don't know if it is one or the other [adj. or nom.], and I suspect
that it is in fact a pred. nom. because that seems to make much more
chiastic sense.

An attribute [pros] has already been ascribed, as has been the
'where/when' [en arch], so the identity at the center would make more
sense than another adjective, and would have the added benefit of
EXPLAINING the other two, you see. It is in virtue of the hO LOGOS-QEOS
identity that the relationship and locus of the Logos are true.

This is the magic of chiastic structures ~ Everything 'turns' on the
center, and the absolute center here is TON QEON KAI QEOS, which is the
quintessential resonance of hO QEOS-QEOS. In a word, God is right smack
dab in the center of this structure. [C::C], and is emphasized again at
the end ~ the 'left over' C. The center causally explains the rest.

I agree with you that in English, 'And God was the Word' is much better,
not because it better translates the sentence structure of the Greek
couplet, but because it honors the chiastic word order that is so
crucial to this passage.

George

George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA

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