RE: Translation for O LOGOS (John 1)?

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Sat, 11 Oct 1997 16:27:40 -0500

How do we FEEL about these points? You mean it is not a reasoned and
apodictic statement on the matter? You must surely be jesting. Was it at
about this point on a Saturday afternoon that you brought up the endeavor
to translate the C.S. Lewis Carroll version of "Jabberwocky" into Koine
Greek? It appears that a few scholia are in order. And ye that care not for
such as this know, I assume, where to find your delete keys.

At 3:41 PM -0500 10/11/97, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>At 04:22 PM 10/11/97 -0400, Jim West wrote:
>
>>(though I must, it seems, go on the record as also opposing "chicken liver"
>>as a poor selection) :>)

DE GUSTIBUS NON DISPUTANDUM EST--ATTAMEN DISPUTANT OMNES. And for that
reason I will have to say that I thought it was a RICH selection ;-)

>But consider these passages:
>
>John 1:1a EN ARCH HN hO LOGOS - "the first course was the chicken liver"
>John 1:1c QEOS HN hO LOGOS - "the chicken liver was divine!" (some witnesses
>add: "Recipe on page 47!")
>

But--was it "chopped" EN ARCHi?

>Once we understand that LOGOS means chicken liver, it is clear that QEOS
>must be understood as qualitative, and not definite or indefinite. Or how
>about this passage, which reveals truths known to anybody who knows the
>difference between Matzos and Gefilte fish:
>
>Matt 28:15 KAI DIEFHMISQH hO LOGOS hOUTOS PARA IOUDAIOIS MECRI THS SHMERON -
>"and the virtues of chicken liver are well known among the Jews even unto
>today"

Shouldn't that be: "And this chicken liver was defamed in the presence of
the Jews up to this day?"

>However, it is difficult to know how to best translate passages like:
>
>ESTW DE hO LOGOS hUMWN NAI NAI, OU OU.

You must realize that this question cannot be definitively answered until
we have reached the definitive solution to the question of how to translate
the 3rd person imperative. Are we to say: "And your chicken liver must be:
"Ah, yes!" or "Oh, No!" Or would it be preferable to say, "Your chicken
liver must be 'Jawohl', ist jedoch 'Gar nicht!'" TOUTO DE MEQHRMENEUMENON
ESTIN: "Your chicken liver it behooveth to be for Yahweh, but it is not
garnished."

>I'd be interested to know how Carl, Edward, Edgar, and Carlton "feel" about
>this.

And, without imagining that the definitive and final LOGOS has been spoken
on the topic, I rather suspect the equivalent of an electronic hissing
campaign: PERI TOUTWN MEN SIWPATW PAS TIS hAPAX, SIWPATW DIS, SIWPATW EIS
AIWNA AIWNWN ... The rest was silence, and the silence was a rest. And the
silence and the rest were ...

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
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/