RE: 2John 7

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sat Dec 18 1999 - 12:19:58 EST


At 10:33 AM -0600 12/18/99, Bill Ross wrote:
><Carl>
>>I don't think the question is that easily resolved; I would sooner
>translate it "coming in the flesh." The problem is that the participle is a
>PRESENT participle rather than an aorist or perfect participle (ELQONTA or
>ELHLUQOTA), inasmuch as one would suppose it is referring to the earthly
>ministry of Jesus. It if IS referring to the earthly ministry of Jesus,
>then I think we would expect the aorist or perfect participle of an event
>in the past or an event completed. So I'd convert the present text of 2
>John 7 as "For many have come into the world who do not confess that Jesus
>Christ comes in flesh."
>
><Bill>
>It may be helpful to compare/contrast with 1 John 4:2-3 where it is in fact
>in the perfect:
>
>1 John 4:2 EN TOUTW GINWSKETE TO PNEUMA TOU QEOU PAN PNEUMA O OMOLOGEI
>IHSOUN CRISTON EN SARKI ELHLUQOTA EK TOU QEOU ESTIN
>1 John 4:3 KAI PAN PNEUMA O MH OMOLOGEI TON IHSOUN EK TOU QEOU OUK
>ESTIN KAI
>TOUTO ESTIN TO TOU ANTICRISTOU O AKHKOATE OTI ERCETAI KAI NUN EN TW KOSMW
>ESTIN HDH

Interesting. Thanks, Bill. I sort of thought I'd seen this same phrase
elsewhere with a perfect participle. I suppose what this means is that the
present participle ERCOMENON in 2 John 7 is in fact a mistake in the
composition that has not been corrected by any major copyist; I certainly
think that the author's intent was to refer to Jesus' historical ministry
rather than to a present or future coming. It is interesting too that all
major versions convert the Greek text into what they think the author MEANT
rather than what the Greek actually SAYS.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

---
B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:50 EDT