Re: EKEINOS in 1 Jn 2:6
Carlton Winbery (winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net)
Wed, 24 Sep 1997 20:29:53 +0400
Carl Conrad answered;
>> Yet I
>>can see a strong case for this referring back to the hOS in verse 5.
>>What do you all think, and why?
>
>I think it's Jesus, because (in 25 words or less?) (1) the aorist verb in
>2:6 PERIEPATHSEN is NOT gnomic but in this instance, I think, really
>temporal, definite, and past, while the verb with hOS in 1:5 is
>generalizing (hOS D' AN THRHi ...); (2) the idiomatic use of EKEINOS where
>there is no clear antecedent is with reference to a figure clearly known to
>both the writer and his/her audience--not quite like our upper-case-H "He,"
>but somewhat like it--Greek will sometimes intensify this reference to a
>commonly known figure by adding the name with the article, as EKEINOS hO
>ALEXANDROS, meaning: not just any Alexander but that one we all know about.
>
Another good example of this intensified use of the demonstrative (no, I
would not say "divine" demonstrative) is John I:18 EKEINOS EXHGHSATO. The
use of the near demonstrative hOUTOS in John 1:2 is also intensive.
Carlton L. Winbery
Fogleman Professor of Religion
Chair, Division of Religious Studies
winberyc@popalex1.linknet.net
winbery@andria.lacollege.edu
voice 318 487-7241
fax 318 442-4996