From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Sun Apr 07 2002 - 07:55:16 EDT
At 11:10 PM -0500 4/6/02, backusfam1@bluefrognet.net wrote:
>I would like to thank all of those who responded to my question, especially
>Reverend Ben Crick, whose contribution seemed the most plausible. He
>attributed the plural form of hIEROUSALHM to the fact that the Hebrew used the
>plural form of which the Greek, no longer using the dual in the New Testament,
>reflected the Hebrew by using the plural. However, I felt that some did not
>understand the question. My question in regard to Jerusalem in John 2:23 has
>to do with the fact that it occurs there in the dative plural with the
>definite
>article, however, previously in v.13, he used the form hIEROSOLUMA. Since the
>LXX used hIEROUSALHM 90% of its occurrences, which is the indeclinable form,
>therefore static, then why employ the dative and genitive plural forms when
>hIEROUSALHM does not require a grammatical conformity? Luke's gospel, for
>example, is highly consistent in using one particular form to represent the
>spelling of Jerusalem.
> In John 2:13 & 2:23 Jerusalem is in different forms, however, there is no
>significance in the spellings, both contexts are similar in construction as
>well as to the event taking place (the Passover). I'm not losing sleep over
>this, it's really a matter of curiosity. I was just wondering why the author
>used a different form when hIEROUSALHM, occurring some 78 times in the NT, was
>not his choice in the verses cited above, as well as in John 5:1 and 5:2 where
>this same instance is presented again. Actually, John's gospel shows the
>highest percentage of mixed forms(some 66% of Jerusalem's occurrence is in the
>dative and genitive). I guess I'm trying to understand the apostle John's
>mind, or reasoning, for what seems to be a curious difference in form.
Two thoughts regarding this question:
(1) This is not the place to discuss so-called "higher" criticism, but I
think it is worth noting that some scholars believe that GJn is not the
work of a single author but that it conflates two or more traditions within
a "school." The renowned late Roman Catholic scholar Raymond Brown, who
compiled the 2-volume Anchor Bible commentary on the gospel and who also
wrote a neat little hypothetical reconstruction on its composition entitled
_The Community of the Beloved Disciples_, argued that the completed gospel
is the composite work of three generations within a school; while the style
of writing is pretty consistent, occasional differences in spelling,
morphology, and perspective may derive from distinct authors within that
tradition. I am not arguing for this perspective and I am certainly NOT
inviting discussion of this hypothesis in this forum, but it is one of the
factors that might be involved in the variation here under discussion.
(2) Another factor that might have a bearing is the observation that
Johannine style seems to involve deliberate alternation of synonymous
expressions without any clear intention to imply a difference of meaning.
One such passage involving such alternation has been the subject of prior
discussions on B-Greek: the alternation in chapter 21 (the dialogue between
the risen Christ and Simon Peter at the lakeshore): BOSKE alternates with
POIMAINE, ARNIA with PROBATA, and (notoriously!) FILEW with AGAPAW. I think
it's conceivable (although beyond demonstrating with any assurance) that
the variant forms of the name of the Holy City in GJn are also instances of
deliberate alternation.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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