Re: John 3:21b

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Sun, 10 May 1998 08:49:44 -0400

At 12:41 AM -0400 5/10/98, Jane Harper wrote:
>I'm working my way through St. John's Gospel, and this snippet is making me
>nuts:
>
>hINA FANERWQHi AUTOU TA ERGA hOTI EN QEWi ESTIN EIRGASMENA
>
>Several points of syntax escape me:
>
>--what noun is AUTOU modifying?
>--what is the subject of ESTIN?
>--what is the subject of FANERWQHi?
>--what does EIRGASMENA modify?

AUTOU modifies ERGA; ERGA is the subject of ESTIN EIRGASMENA (n.pl. subject
with singular verb--but plural participle in the periphrastic perfect
tense); ERGA is also the subject of FANERWQHi (n.pl. subject again);
EIRGASMENA is the participial part of the periphrastic perfect ESTIN
EIRGASMENA,it does agree with ERGA. If the sentence were rephrased in a
more-nearly natural English, it would be: "so that they may be made
evident, (that is) his works, that they (his work) have been brought to
completion in/by God." I also would take that EN + dative as the
not-untypical Hellenistic use of EN with instrumental dative.

>Looking at the Latin [the other side of the page <grin>] I see that the phrase
>means "so that his [her] works might be manifested, that are done in God", but
>the word order is really throwing me. Help??

The Latin is right, but it doesn't repeat the subject, as English would
require inthat last clause: "that (they) are done in God." I take it that
the Latin is FACTA SUNT, which is really "that (they) have been done in
God."

I hope this helps.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/