From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sat Apr 01 2000 - 20:18:59 EST
<x-html><!x-stuff-for-pete base="" src="" id="0" charset=""><!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { margin-top: 0 ; margin-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>Re: hOUTWS Jn3.16 "In this
way"</title></head><body>
<div>At 3:41 PM -0600 4/1/00, Joseph A. Weaks wrote:</div>
<div>>At 8:35 AM -0600 4/1/00, Carl W. Conrad wrote:<br>
>>Technically speaking it is true that hOUTWS is the adverb
for<br>
>>hOUTOS/hAUTH/TOUTO and means "thus" or
"so" or "in this manner."<br>
>>...I think that what puzzles me most about this insistence
that hOUTWS in this<br>
>>instance is devoid of any implication of extent<br>
>>...I still think that in John 3:16 the distinction between
quality<br>
>>and quantity has become moot, and that to insist on it is
tantamount<br>
>>to making a molehill out of a mountain.<br>
><br>
>All true, except for one thing. My emphasis (not so much
an<br>
>"insistence") is not merely academic. The
majority of church members<br>
>ONLY hear John 3:16 taken out of context. I'd say that 90%
of the<br>
>folks in the 4 churches I've served have ONLY understood the
hWSTE as<br>
>a Result Clause of the intensive extent of hOUTWS (ie. God
sending<br>
>God's son is a result of how much God loved us). The
context of the<br>
>analogy with Moses does make clear that there is at least some<br>
>emphasis on a correlative "in this way" (even if only
60%/40%). So,<br>
>as an interpreter, and as their pastor, it is my vocation to
give<br>
>voice to this forgotten aspect.<br>
>Let me suggest that for me to do so is an attempt to bring the<br>
>congregation closer to an authentic reading of a text, rather
than</div>
<div>>"making a molehill out of a mountain."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I think we may have to agree to disagree on this one. I will go
with you to the extent that I agree it is better to understand a
whole complex of text rather than an isolated "proof text."
What I, for my part, am not willing to concede is that there is some
distinct emphasis on MANNER in the hOUTWS of John 3:16. I see a
different emphasis in the usage in verses 14 and 15 where the
correlative clauses are introduced by KAQWS and hOUTWS so that a
parallel is drawn between the visible sign of the serpent raised by
Moses in the wilderness and the raising-up of the Son of Man (on the
cross) as a visible sign (although the key analogon is the verb
hUYOUN), but frankly, I can discern no relationship between the
hOUTWS of verse 16 and the hOUTWS of verse 14.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Helena" size="+1" color="#007700">14</font><font
color="#007700"> KAI KAQWS MWUSHS hUYWSEN TON OFIN EN THi ERHMWi,
hOUTWS hUYWQHNAI DEI TON hUION TOU ANQRWPOU, 15 hINA PAS hO PISTEUWN
EN AUTWi ECHi ZWHN AIWNION. 16 hOUTWS GAR HGAPHSEN hO QEOS TON
KOSMON, hWSTE TON hUION TON MONOGENH EDWKEN, hINA PAS hO PISTEUWN EIS
AUTON MH APOLHTAI ALL' ECHI ZWHN AIWNION.</font></div>
<div><font color="#007700"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#007700">I realize that there are others like
yourself who think there's some particular advantage or value in
underscoring that hOUTWS in John 3:16 means "in this way"
and suppose that manner rather than extent is its focus. My own sense
here is rather that hOUTWS ... hWSTE constitutes a standard
"consecutive" pattern having an emphatic adverb in an
initial clause followed by hWSTE with an infinitive or an indicative
verb in a result clause. For that reason, I cannot see that the 90%
of the folks in the churches are sorely misunderstanding John 3:16 if
they see it as saying, "God sooooo... loved ..." I think
that the point you're making is one that can be argued, but I
personally don't think it so cogent that the understanding of lay
people needs to be corrected from this exegesis.</font></div>
<div><font color="#007700"><br></font></div>
<div>-- <br>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4
: Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:41:04 EDT
<br>
Carl W. Conrad<br>
Department of Classics/Washington University<br>
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018<br>
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649<br>
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu <br>
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/>
</body>
</html>
</x-html>