From: lakr (lakr@netcom.com)
Date: Thu Dec 18 1997 - 11:23:38 EST
Dear B-Greeker's,
I have been slowing reading the book of first John and am now
up to 1John 2:12-14. All of a sudden I realized that I had
not been interpreting the very first verse of 1John correctly.
I had been taking 'O HN AP ARXHS' with what followed, 'O AKHKOAMEN
O EWRAKAMEN ...', in other words, the _message_ that they heard
from the beginning.
When I got to 2:13 with the phrase 'GRAFW UMIN PATERES OTI
EGNWKATE TON AP ARXHS', I was totally confused with the
verb GINWSKO being used with respect to 'TON AP ARXHS' until I
cheated and looked at the English translations. All the
English translations that I checked translate to the effect that
'You have known _him_ who is from the beginning'.
Now a light bulb goes off and I see that in 1John 1:1 it is not
the _message_ they heard 'from the beginning' but that it is
the LOGOS who was 'from the beginning'. Then I notice that
in my Nestle Aland, that the cross reference indeed links
1John 2:13! to 1John 1:1 and 1John 1:1 to John 1:1.
Now for my first question. Is is grammatically correct to consider
'O HN AP ARXES' as being 'that which [we heard] was from the beginning' ?,
and would it be grammatically correct to interpret 2:13 as
'YOU have known him, from the beginning' ? If so, is it the
word order that makes this consistently translated as 'You have
known him who was from the beginning', and would the phrase need
to be 'TON EGNWKATE AP ARXHS' to have the latter meaning ?
Also, in my Greek text it sets off these verses, 1John 2:12-14, in
an indented fashion, but it does not appear to be a quote from
the OT, so is there a technical name for this section ?
Sincerely,
Larry Kruper
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