[b-greek] Re: 1 John 2:3 and another small question

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Mon Oct 02 2000 - 08:24:14 EDT


At 1:43 AM +0000 10/2/00, Mark Wilson wrote:
>1 John 2:3
>
>KAI EN TOUTWi GINWSKOMEN hOTI EGNWKAMEN AUTON, EAN TAS ENTOLAS AUTOU THRWMEN
>
>Are there any objections to the following paraphrase or translation:
>
>"And in this, namely, if we diligently guard and honor his commandments, we
>know that we are in a state of [intimate] knowledge of him."

I rather think that THRWMEN in this text conveys the sense of Hebrew SHMR,
"keep," "observe."

>How would you capture the shift from the present GINWSKOMEN to the perfect
>EGNWKAMEN ?
>
>I have added [intimate] in an attempt to capture the idea of knowledge in a
>relationship sense, but perhaps "intimate" is too strong.
>
>How can I translate this in such a way as to not imply that there is only
>ONE state of "knowing" someone?
>
>I get the idea that this is dealing with "knowing" someone in the sense of a
>relationship, not in the sense of attaining more raw data about someone.

I'd say something like, "And we realize/grasp that we (really) DO know Him
by this criterion: whether we keep His commandments." The present tense of
GINWSKW means essentially, "recognize," although it can certain convey in
some contexts the same sense that here seems indicated by the perfect-tense
form. The perfect tense EGNWKAMEN does imply that the "understanding" of
Him by us is fully realized

>Also, what does "passim" mean? (It is not used as a Greek word. I see this
>word in a commentary I am now reading. As in: John 6:20, 14:11, 1 John 1:4,
>2 John 3, passim.)

"Passim" is a Latin term meaning something like "sporadically throughout
the whole of a textual corpus." It was once a standard abbreviation
universally employed and understood like "loc. cit.", "op. cit.", "ibid.",
"scilicet," etc., and now employed almost exclusively by pedants who want
others to know that THEY are educated even if others are NOT, and almost
universally not understood by anyone. I think "etc." is just about the only
one of these words or phrases that is likely to be understood at once, even
if one doesn't know what the Latin original means.
--

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

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