FANERWQWSIN in 1 Jn 2:19 (was PARAGETAI)

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Fri, 7 Mar 1997 08:49:16 -0500

At 12:59 AM -0500 3/7/97, S. M. Baugh wrote:

>Philoi,

>

>Thanks for all the chat on PARAGETAI in 1 John 2. Very
stimulating--even

>the occasional rant or rave was well taken and informative! I think
Carl

>gave out why BAGD et al. evaluate this form as passive (some old
notions

>of basic active-passive polarity rather than
active-middle/reflexive).

I earnestly HOPE this is true. I'll give a call to Fred Danker when I
get back to St. Louis and ask if his latest revision has made any
changes in that regard. I need to talk to him anyway.

>You all probably want this to die down, but can I very, very meekly
ask

>for reflections of the same sort on PHANERWTHWSIN in 1 John 2:19? [Is

>there a standard transliteration scheme I should use??] This

>morphologically passive verb has the same sort of intransitive
meaning

>(as PARAGETAI): "be manifested." Yet the plural form gives slight
pause.

>This verb's phrase is taken as impersonal yet that makes the OTI the

>virtual subject of this plural verb. OK, perhaps something similar in
2

>Cor. 3:3. Yet, is there a slight, oh very slight chance that John
means

>something like "that they may be exposed (as pretenders)"? (See Rev.

>3:18 for this possible meaning of PHANEROW in passive.) Otherwise the

>plural just seems odd (also to some Greek scribes; note the singular
as

>a variant reading here).

You'll find our most common transliteration practice shown at our List
web site

http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek

I might add that we don't have a prescribed method--what's shown there
is the one most commonly used. When we have our new B-Greek FAQ ready,
it will include a larger section on transliteration schemes.

Now, about FANERWQWSIN in 1 Jn 2:19. I would assume that it is the
correct reading as the lectio difficilior, the forms in the singular
being, as you suggested, copyists' "emendations." I'd understand this
as a passive 3d plural,the subject of which is implicitly the apostates
who have left the Johannine community, and I'd understand it as you
have, "They left us because they aren't part of us .. so that they
might be shown up, because not all are part of us." I think that the
hOTI clause is perhaps misunderstood by some to be the subject of
FANERWQWSIN, and I believe that's what those copyists thought too, but
I think that the hOTI here is explanatory: "since, because." If Brown's
hypothesis (which seems to me to make sense) in _Community of the
Beloved Disciple_ is right, then "those who left" are the gnostic
majority of what had hitherto been a Johannine Community which is only
now entering into full communion with the apostolic community.

What find interesting especially here is this hINA <italic>solitarium
</italic> clause that seems to be distinctly Johannine. I have no
reference works with me in my Blue Ridge hideaway, but I suppose this
is usually explained as an elliptical construction with an introductory
clause omitted that was something like TAUTA OUN EGENETO.

Carl W. Conrad

Department of Classics, Washington University

One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130

(314) 935-4018

cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com

WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/