From: David A Bielby (dbielby@juno.com)
Date: Sun Oct 10 1999 - 19:11:41 EDT
Thank you for this jewel.
On Sun, 10 Oct 1999 16:12:11 -0500 "Carl W. Conrad"
<cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu> writes:
> At 3:29 PM -0500 10/10/99, David A Bielby wrote:
> >Jn 6:29b
> >hINA PISTEUHTE EIS hON APESTEILEN EKEINOS
> >
> >I'm translating the conjunction and the Present Active Subjunctive
> >functionally as 'to believe'. My questions are: Is there not a
> continuous
> >sense in this phrase...and if so, how can we bring that out without
> being
> >awkward in the translation?? Doesn't it seem that the english
> tends to
> >lose that continuous state connotation? How can we adjust for that?
> >
> >Could it be translated "to always believe" or something like this?
>
> Yes, I think you could say that the fact that PISTEUHTE is present
> "tense"
> means in effec that the believing is continuous--but it could also
> mean
> that the believing is in its inception: i.e. "so you may begin to
> believe
I overlooked the inceptive concept. Thanks! So, would you agree then
that it is incorrect to draw out the assumption that this verb means a
one time experiential believing in. Or, is there really no distinction
between a snapshot of belief and the inceptive?
> in the one whom he sent" or "so you may continue to believe in the
> one whom
> he sent."
>
> However, both of these sound rather awkward in English, and my own
> inclination, except when being "hyperliteral" is to stay within the
> bounds
> of ordinary English idiom, which does not normally make the sort of
> distinction you're suggesting for PISTEUHTE. I don't think it would
> be
> "always believe" anyway, but rather, "continue to believe." That is
> to say,
> as I understand the force of the aspect here, it is that action is
> ongoing
> and that nothing is implied about an end; rather it's a matter of
> open-ended futurity (which has always seemed to me to be what lies
> at the
> heart of Johannine faith in any case).
>
>
> 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/
Thanks again!
David Bielby
Vineyard Christian Fellowship
Bloomington/Normal, Illinois USA
dbielby@juno.com www.bloomington.vineyard.org
Phone: 309-827-8292
--- 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 - 15:40:41 EDT