From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 04 2001 - 17:18:24 EST
At 4:40 PM -0500 1/4/01, Richard Ghilardi wrote:
>Dear b-greekers,
>
>IWANNOU A 4:8 states:
>
>hO MH AGAPWN OUK EGNW TON QEON,
>hOTI hO QEOS AGAPH ESTIN.
>
>I have a question with reference to the second clause. Is there any place
>in Greek literature prior to John's letter in last quarter of the 1st
>century A.D. where the specific statement hO QEOS AGAPH ESTIN is made? Is
>there anything close to it? How about other ancient languages before the
>1st century A.D.? Or is this John's unique expression?
This is not really a question about the Greek of the NT but a
cultural-historical question--even asking whether there's something like it
in other ancient languages previously--and I fear that discussion of it is
going to carry us far away from our fundamental focus and enter into issues
about which we're going to have vastly different presuppositions. One could
find things in Plato's Symposium such as that ERWS is a DAIMWN carrying on
the communication between the divine and human realms; one could find
things such as Aristotle's assertion the God causes all purposive movement
in the world: KINEI DE hWS ERWMENOS (as the OBJECT of ERWS), but this is
really quite different.As I say, it's not really a question about the Greek
but a question about the idea here given expression in the Greek.
--
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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