From: dalmatia@eburg.com
Date: Wed Mar 18 1998 - 00:50:26 EST
GregStffrd wrote:
>
> Samuel Green (Handbook to the Grammar of the Greek Testament [New York:
> Fleming H. Revell, 1912], 190, sec. 219) states: "Some prepositional phrases
> omit the Article; in most instances denoting time, place, or state."
>
> I don't think the anarthrous ARKH amounts to anything more than what is stated
> above.
Hi Greg ~
Fair enough ~ And this, of course, leaves the marvelous ambiguity of
John intact, in virtue of the third option listed ~ "state". Most
readings, of course, take it in a time context, which omits the power,
rulership and authority aspect of ARXH. It could mean 'place', but I
suspect that it might refer to a formless state that then gives rise
to the possibility of form, then place and time. 'Tis all speculation
at this point on my part, and is certainly NOT spelled out ~ Lives in
the realm of 'hints and allegations', and thus suffers in any
definitive approach ~ Yet a simple time point where 'the beginning'
took place ignores the wider root meaning of ARXH and makes shallow
work of a profoundly sacred part of the GNT.
George Blaisdell
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