Re: OUK ESTIN SOU ANHR

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Wed, 2 Jul 1997 14:15:49 -0400

At 8:12 AM -0400 7/2/97, John M. Moe wrote:
>In the discussion with the woman of Sycar at John 4:18 Jesus says OUK
>ESTIN SOU ANHR. Englsh translations usualy render this "is not your
>husband." My question is would OUK ESTIN SOU ANHR imply that she was
>living with a man to whom she was not married? (as this English
>rendering would imply?) Or would it be understood to mean she was living
>with someone elses man? (which would require emphasis on the "your" in
>English).
>
> Could this be rendered something like "You have had five husbands and
>the one you have now is not yours?"

I think you've pegged the possibilities correctly: she's not formally
married with the man with whom she's living, and he COULD be someone else's
husband--but it is not possible from the text to ascertain which is more
likely, primarily because ANHR can mean either "man" or "husband," just
like French "homme" or Germann "Mann." The word-order of John 4:18 is
rather colloquial: "Five husband's you've had, and now the one you've got
isn't your husband." I think I'd leave the translation that way--it retains
the colloquialism and the ambiguity of the Greek. (or, if you'd prefer:
"Five men you've had, and now the one you've got isn't your man."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/