From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sat Sep 09 2000 - 13:53:22 EDT
At 12:45 PM -0400 9/9/00, Polycarp66@aol.com wrote:
>I have read in some well-considered commentaries (most notably R.H. Charles)
>that the author of the Apocalypse never identifies himself as the Apostle
>John. I tend to take issue with this opinion in light of these verses.
>
>I take v. 2 to indicate that the author was presenting himself as being a
>witness to the "Word of God" (a reference to Jn 1.1?) and to the MARTURIAN of
>Jesus Christ which I understand in the modern sense of "martyrdom." Although
>"hOS" is nom. and "IWANNHi" is dat., I don't consider this a problem in view
>of nature the Greek of the Apocalypse.
>
>Your comments are appreciated. Text follows. If you have the SPIonic font,
>you can copy the second version of the text, paste it into a WP program, and
>format it as SPIonic (except for the numbers which should be some other font
>such as Arial or Times New Roman). In this way you can view it as native
>Greek.
>
>1 APOKALUYIS IHSOU XRISTOU hH EDWKEN AUTWi hO QEOS DEICAI TOIS DOULOIS AUTOU
>hA DEI GENESQAI EN TAXEI, KAI ESHMANEN APOSTEILAS DIA TOU AGGELOU AUTOU TWi
>DOULWi AUTOU IANNHi
>
>2 hOS EMARTURHSEN TON LOGON TOU QEOU KAI THN MARTURIAN IHSOU XRISTOU hOSA
>EIDEN
Although it seems to me that the identity of the author of the Apocalypse
(as the IWANNHS here referred to) with the author of the gospel of John is
certainly possible, I don't see that there's any necessity to assume that.
It's noteworthy also that there is no internal identification of the author
of the gospel with the apostle John. Those questions, however, are not
questions of how to understand the Greek text but larger questions of
Biblical criticism.
What DOES concern the Greek text, however, is your assertion above that
MARTURIAN in the second verse above is to be understood in the modern sense
of "martyrdom": what earthly justification can you offer for that
interpretation? Is there any indication that MARTURIA in the Biblical text
ever means something other than "testimony" or "witness-bearing"? The only
HINT in the GNT of which I'm aware of linkage of the notion of suffering in
order to bear witness is in Acts 9:15-16 where Ananias in Damascus, in the
face of his reluctance to go to the blinded Saul, is told ... hOTI SKEUOS
EKLOGHS ESTIN MOI hOUTOS TOU BASTASAI TO ONOMA MOU ENWPION EQNWN TE KAI
BASILEWN hUIWN TE ISRAHL; EGW GAR hUPODEIXW AUTWi hOSA DEI AUTON hUPER TOU
ONOMATOS MOU PAQEIN. And even here, where suffering to carry the gospel is
clearly in view, the evangelistic work is not called MARTURIA--that is, I
can't see the "modern" sense of MARTURIA that you assert for Rev 1:2.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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