From: Steven R. Lo Vullo (doulos@chorus.net)
Date: Wed Dec 06 2000 - 22:38:27 EST
On 12/6/00 1:58 PM, Mark Wilson wrote:
> John 3:16a
>
> hOUTWS GAR HGAPHSEN hO QEOS TON KOSMON.
>
> Does John mean by using the Aorist here that God's love
> for the world should be viewed as complete or as a whole?
>
> "Completion" is not even a characteristic of LOVE. How would
> one view God's love as a "whole" ? What would that even mean?
> Better to see God's love as simply undefined. You might simply
> view God's love as nothing more or less than that; simply that
> God loved the world.
This is not a good example at all of the point being made. It conveniently
ends the sentence before the following result clause that itself contains an
aorist indicative verb (hWSTE ... EDWKEN). You can't separate the two
clauses. What is in view is the intensive degree (hOUTWS) of God's love *at
the time of* and *resulting in* the giving of his Son. When it is taken into
consideration that a specific act at a specific time is in view, it is not
that hard at all to view HGAPHSAN as perfective. It is a specific
demonstration of God's love that is in view, not God's love in general.
Recourse to some of the other Johannine writings where very similar ideas
are expressed confirms this. Compare 1 Jn 4.9, 10:
9 EN TOUTWi EFANERWQH hH AGAPH TOU QEOU EN hHMIN, hOTI TON hUION AUTOU TON
MONOGENH APESTALKEN hO QEOS EIS TON KOSMON....
10 EN TOUTWi ESTIN hH AGAPH ... hOTI AUTOS HGAPHSEN (aorist) hHMAS KAI
APESTEILEN TON hUION AUTOU....
Note in v. 9 the appositional relationship of the hOTI clause to EN TOUTWi.
The meaning is that it was in the sending of his only begotten Son into the
world that God's love was *manifested* among us. It is the revelation of
God's love in the sending of his Son that is in view, not his love in
general. Then in v. 10 we have the same use of the appositional hOTI clause,
but this time the author uses the aorist indicative to make the parallel
point: Love is seen in the fact that God loved (aorist) us and sent his Son.
When the parallel is taken into consideration we must conclude that HGAPHSEN
is used to express the idea of the manifestation of God's love in a specific
act, namely that of sending his Son. The similarity of these verses to Jn
3.16 should be obvious.
Steve
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