RE: OUK ESTIN SOU ANHR again again corrected

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Sat, 5 Jul 1997 06:57:32 -0400

Dare I throw yet another indecisive factor into the undecided question? The
FORM of SOU in John 4:18 is printed in UBS4 as an enclitic (SOU, not SOU=).
IF that's correct, then it should mean that SOU belongs with OUK ESTIN
rather than with ANHR. I would then guess that we have a construction that
imitates a common Latin construction where the subject is hON ECEIS
(EKEINOS) ... ANHR and the predicate is OUK ESTIN SOU: "The one
(man/husband) you have (he) isn't YOURS. It seems to me that this reading
makes the SOU, even if it is an enclitic, really pretty emphatic and we
SHOULD translate it as "YOURS." I think this is probably right--at any
rate, I think the enclitic form SOU really ought to be taken with OUK ESTIN
rather than with ANHR. And if that's the case, then we probably SHOULD
understand ANHR as "husband" rather than simply "man."

At 2:00 PM -0400 7/4/97, Clayton Bartholomew wrote:
>A correction to my last diatribe.
>
>
>TON ANDRA SOU John 4:16
>OUK ESTIN SOU ANHR John 4:18
>
>I said:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>Leon Morris in his book *Studies in the Fourth Gospel* has
>a chapter on variation as a feature of John's style. He
>includes variation in word order as one of the things John
>regularly does to break up what might otherwise be boring
>repetition. The word order variation I pointed out
>previously: SOU TO ONOMA in 17: 6 but TO ONOMA SOU
>in17:26, might be explained in this way.
>{snip}
>On the other hand the construction under consideration in
>John 4:18 is not repeated in the immediate context. . .
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>I was wrong. It is repeated in the same context. So Leon
>Morris' insight seems to apply to John 4:16,18. The
>standard word order having appeared in 4:16, John altered
>it in 4:18 to avoid monotony. The article is still a curious
>problem.
>
>
>Clay Bartholomew
>Three Tree Point

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
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