John 4:7

• To: NT-greek@virginia.edu
• Subject: John 4:7
• From: Edward Hobbs <EHOBBS@lucy.wellesley.edu>
• Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1993 11:39 EST

Wes Allen and Tyler Williams have already rightly pointed out that
)EPIFWSKOU/SH  in Matt. 28:1 does not mean "as DUSK was approaching";
so I will make the obvious comment about John 4:7.
	(a) DOS is certainly imperative, so insofar as imperatives are
to be understood as commands, this is a command, not a request.
	(b) It is unlikely that this conversation was held in Greek;
probably Jesus spoke Aramaic (_pace_ the neo-Hebraists!).  Thus the
issue would be (if there was in fact such a conversation) whether the
Greek correctly translated the (lost) Aramaic original.
	(c) But in any case, there is no "powerlessness of Jesus"
implied in such an imperative; the woman points out the obvious
difficulty (4:11)--Jesus had no bucket!  Utensil-less.  To get a
drink from a well, one needs to lower a bucket into the water and
then lift it out.  Perhaps he could have asked for the loan of
her bucket; but then we woldn't have had all the puns on ZWN water,
would we?

Edward Hobbs

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