Re: Translation for O LOGOS (John 1)?
Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Sat, 11 Oct 1997 06:36:47 -0500
At 6:43 PM -0500 10/10/97, Eric Weiss wrote:
>I would think that how one translates LOGOS in John 1 should take into
>account how it is translated throughout the gospel - and how it's
>translated in the rest of the Johannine literature. Following is a
>"quick and dirty" count I did from my print concordance:
> [the business end of this post--the data--I have deleted to save space]
>Note the very lopsided, almost exclusive use in the Gospel of LOGOS in
>the singular for what might be translated "message" or the content of
>what is said, and the use of hRHMA (in the plural only, and only in the
>Gospel) for what would perhaps mean "words" or "sayings," i.e., the
>things that make up the LOGOS. What's really interesting is how the
>Revelation uses LOGOS almost equally in the singular and the plural -
>and never uses hRHMA but instead appears to use LOGOS for both. I assume
>this might be one feature of the Revelation people have used to argue
>against it being by the same author as the Gospel of John.
I'll make one last contribution to this latest spate of what might be
called "logorrhea": (a) Raymond Brown in his commentary on the gospel has
an appendix on synonymous words and phrases in the gospel, and one of those
that he devotes some pages to is LOGOS/hRHMA; (b) it might be worth noting
too that LOGOS is not infrequently used even in the Synoptic gospels in the
sense of the essential MESSAGE that Jesus is proclaiming or expounding.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
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