From: Greg Williams (gwilliams@softlabna.com)
Date: Fri Aug 30 1996 - 07:46:45 EDT
In John 3:5, Jesus answers Nicodemus:
EAN MH TIS GENNHQH EX hUDATOS KAI PNEUMATOS
OU DUNATAI EISELQEIN EIS THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU.
In the past, I've interpreted the phrase "EX hUDATOS KAI PNEUMATOS" as
referring to two "births": natural birth and birth "again/from above".
My reasoning for this was that Jesus seemed to be contrasting spiritual
birth with natural birth in the immediate context.
However, Beasley-Murray in "Baptism in the New Testament" seems to argue
that "EX hUDATOS KAI PNEUMATOS" could not possibly mean that for the
purely grammatical reason that "the unity of the two elements is shown
by the use of the single preposition EK".
From a purely grammatical standpoint, is Beasley-Murray correct? Does
this Greek construction preclude my previous interpretation?
Thanks in advance from another "little greek.
--Greg Williams
====
Greg Williams
Senior Software Engineer
Softlab, Inc.
gwilliams@softlabna.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:50 EDT