From: Dale M. Wheeler (dalemw@teleport.com)
Date: Mon Feb 09 1998 - 14:56:53 EST
John Reece wrote:
>In terms of Greek grammar, what is there to preclude translating THS
>PROFHTEIAS in Revelation 19:10 the same way it is translated in 1:3 and
>in 22:7,10,18,19?
There is no reason as far as the grammar of the phrase TO PNEUMA THS
PROFHTEIAS goes, since it is an Apollonius' Canon construction (ie.,
the fact that both have the article for symetry tells you nothing about
the definiteness or indefiniteness of the nouns involved).
The reason I'd differentiate this use from the others is that the others
have CLEAR contextual clues that tell you that the prophecy being referred
to is what John is hearing and recording in this book; Rev 19:10 has no
such contextual clues, and indeed seems to point away from this specific
record to a general sense for prophecy (as long as you translate it "...
the spirit of prophecy."). There are other ways to construe the equative
verb ESTIN rather than just "is..." and there are other ways to understand
the genitive that "of...", especially when one starts by making the
genitive with "testimony of Jesus" an objective gen, ie., "testimony
about Jesus". Nevertheless, I suspect that most Greek exegetes read
the passage to mean: the testimony about Jesus (given by believers to the
world) is the heart (spirit, ie., central point, organizing theme) of
all prophetic activity.
XAIREIN...
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Dale M. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Research Professor in Biblical Languages Multnomah Bible College
8435 NE Glisan Street Portland, OR 97220
Voice: 503-251-6416 FAX:503-254-1268 E-Mail: dalemw@teleport.com
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