Re: Greek Help?

Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Tue, 26 Aug 97 22:56:07

On Tue 26 Aug 97 (14:21:39), mfer@loc.gov wrote:
> Please excuse my rude attempt to communicate this
> to you, but I am wondering how the aorist can be
> related to the "Just as the Father... has life in himself"?
> 
> Certainly, the Manner adverbs give some weight to the
> "timelessness" of the aorist in this case, yet it seems
> to me that what is being stressed is "how life is IN the Father"
> by the Adverbs "hosper" and "houtos". The emphasis from the
> many Greek commentaries I have read lies upon the Father.
> "having life in himself".
> 
> Am I right in thinking that only the aorist could give the
> proper sense of the completeness of the event without implying
> anything about its nature or duration?

Hullo Mike!

The thing about the Aorist is that it is _timeless_, A-hORISTOS. So back in
pre-time, in the Beginning, the Word was with God and the Word was God (John
1:1). The point here in 5:26 IMHO is that God the Father has life in Himself;
therefore, the Son, being of the same OUSIA as the Father, also has life in
Himself. He "was given", in eternity past, before Time began, "to have Life
in Himself". So therefore Jesus is able to say DIA TOUTO ME hO PATHR AGAPAi
hOTI EGW TIQHMI THN YUCHN MOU, hINA PALIN LABWi AUTHN (John 10:17). He can
only do this because he has Life in Himself. YUCH is the psychical life; ZWH
the eternal life. Eternal life cannot "die": so Jesus was incarnate, became
Man, in order to be able to offer his human YUCH as a penal death in
propitiation for our death-deserving sins.

Compare EGW EIMI hH ANASTASIS KAI hH ZWN· hO PISTEUWN EIS EME KAN APOQANHi
ZHSETAI, KAI PAS hO ZWN KAI PISTEUWN EIS EME OU MH APOQANHi EIS TON AIWNA·
PISTEUEIS TOUTO; (John 11:25-26).

Jesus was not just given to have Life in Himself; he was given to be the
well-spring of Eternal Life to others; compare John 7:37-39. hUDATOS ZWNTOS
I take to be a Semitism: not "living water" but "water of life". Thus we can
become a secondary source of Life for others. "To drink water of life" means
to "swallow" the doctrine of Christ the Life of the world.

You have done well to consult Westcott and Augustine. Augustine writes in
Serm. CXXVII.9 to the effect "we do not have life in ourselves, but in our
God. Just as the Father has life in himself, so he begat a Son who has life in
himself. He is not a participator in Life, but rather he himself is the Life
of which our life is but a part".

hWSPER...hOUTWS KAI.... means "Just as... so also...."; autem... talem....

Saint Augustine of Hippo was of course a Bishop of the [African] Church and a
Trinitarian. Westcott was a Bishop of the [Anglican] Church and a Trinitarian.
Sorry about the sermon; but you can't have translation (hO ESTIN
MEQERMHNEUOMENON) without interpretation (hermeneutics).

EN CRISTWi IHSOU,

-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA Bristol, 1963 (hons in Theology)
 <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)