The Word

There are so many different ways people have tried to translate John 1:1b, "the Word was God"(NIV). The problem is that in the Greek the word order is different. In the Greek it literally reads "God was the Word". Why, or how do translators end up with "the Word was God"? The answer is found in the Greek language. In the Greek language word order is used differently than in English. In English there is no way to tell which noun, God or Word, is the subject and which is the predicate nominative except by word order. In Greek it is different. The Greeks have several ways of separating the subject from the direct object, indirect object or in this case the predicate nominative. They did so by inflection. The words, nouns and articles had different forms for different parts of speech. So even though both God and Word are in the nominative, since they both are nominative, only the subject would have a nominative article in front of it. The word of God is the correct order because only "the word" has an article in front of it showing that it is the subject. But why did the Greeks put God before "the Word"? The Greeks did use word order. But they used it to express what was the most important thing in a sentence the author might be emphasizing. So back to our verse, God is first and the Word is second, but it has the article so the Word is the subject. But the author has God first so we know the author was putting equal emphasis on it. Both God and His son, the Word, are equal but separate. This according to Daniel Wallace is an expression of the Trinity. Jesus Christ is God and has all the attributes that the Father has. But Jesus is not the first person of the Trinity, God is (Wallace, 266-269).

Proclaim forgiveness to the Captives

Taken from Luke 4:18.

Let us look at the second phrase "for he has anointed me". This word for "anointed" is the same root as the wood we get Christ from, "chrisen". The phrase "he has sent me" is of course from the same word we get apostle from - apestalken (Robertson- First aorist active indicative of the verb chrioœ from which Christ (Christos) is derived, the Anointed One. Isaiah is picturing the Jubilee year and the release of captives and the return from the Babylonian exile with the hope of the Messiah through it all. Jesus here applies this Messianic language to himself.)- And the best one is 'proclaim the release to the captives. - Only it could easily read - "to proclaim forgiveness or remission of sin to the captives". We are in captivity because of our sin - We are freed by the anointed apostle by forgiveness being minister or proclaimed to us. This word kerusso - to preach can mean "to proclaim or herald"(example (Rev.5:2). Some have tied it to the trumpet being blown and tidings being proclaimed (Green). This is quite a powerful message that Christ is proclaiming reading from the scroll of the Bible.

Au and Ag

In Acts 3 Luke tells us the story of Peter and John going up to the temple to pray. They try to pass by a man that had been crippled from birth. The man asks for alms and Peter says that famous line translated best in the KJV, "silver and gold have I none but what I have I give you, In the name of Jesus Christ standup and walk. .. And he went walking and leaping and praising God." Great visuals because of the poetical translation are involved in this story. As I was reading it one morning before I was to teach my chemistry class, I noted that the original Greek has "silver and gold I do not have". I looked up my Vulgate and there were the periodic symbols for Gold and Silver, Au and Ag. Actually the symbols come from the Latin argentum et aurum. This gave me an excuse to read the section at the being of Chemistry. Fortunately I teach Bible to the same kids. As an aside this is one case where the poetry of King James is lost in the modern translation. The Message Bible says" I don't have a nickel to my name, but in the name...." At least it could say dime and get the metal correct.

Past Post

1. I was just studying the “Samaritan travel log” in the Gospel of Luke. Luke tells the story of Zacchaeus, the wee little man. Many of you may remember the story by that song. Luke’s use of the Greek vocabulary is more ambitious than the other evangelists and draws a lot from the Septuagint, which was a commonly read Old Testament translation in Jesus’ time. So as Luke is telling the story the crowd “murmurs” and complains about Jesus eating with the sinner, Zacchaeus. The Greek word for “murmuring” that Luke uses is found only in this story and one other place in Luke to describe the murmuring of a crowd of Pharisees. This exact same word is found in the Old Testament to describe the murmuring mixed multitude that rose up against Moses. Is Luke telling his Jewish readers what kind of crowd this was? By using the exact word Luke is likening this crowd to the mix multitude of Moses’ day. I think it was a 3D lesson for the Jewish readers of that day. But the meaning may pass us by if we just see the English.

2. Douglas Barker
   September 1st, 2009 at 8:21 am
   

   I was looking again at John 3:16 and the blog that Jeremiah wrote. Another simple word from that deep text caught my eye. “Houtos” in the greek, translated often as “so”, as in “God so loved the world”. The “so” connects to verse 14 and 15. God in this way – The Greek says “For God in this way loved the world. In what way? In a way that expressed His desire for us to live forever. He wanted us to have eternal life. He loved us in that way. Sometimes I forget that eternal life was very important to God. Jesus reminded his disciples of this, “rejoice that your names are written in the Lamb’s book of life”.

3. Douglas Barker
   September 6th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
   

   Prayer is an important part of our life. It is worth noting that the disciples didn’t ask Jesus for a lesson in systematic theology or a survey of church history. What they did ask for was to be taught how to prayer. In the prayer which the Lord taught them it is commonly known that he used the Greek form of the verb that is called the imperative. This form denotes action/command and it is important in prayer. What is often overlooked is the use of the vocative. This is an older form of the noun that is used when addressing someone specifically. This is not for general use. This is a very personal form of the noun. “Father” Christ was speaking directly to his father. Christ was inclusive enough to use the pronoun “our”. But he was talking directly to His Father. The vocative with the imperative shows us the language and the grammar of personal relationship. It is out of this very personal relationship denoted by the vocative that the imperative finds its use. It might be irreverent to demand from God, but if God is your Father, then from this relationship the deep demand can be made.

4. Douglas Barker
   September 10th, 2009 at 8:38 am
   

   The Greeks have a style for emphasizing a point. The structure of this literary style is called chiastic style. It has been used through the years by Homer, the unknown author of Beowulf, and Milton’s Paradise lost. We also find this used with regular frequency in the New Testament. Chiastic structure is best described as A-B-C-B-A. The word itself Chiastic comes from the Greek letter Chi which is our English X. If you envision the top left part of the x as “A” and the bottom right as the other “A” with the B’s on the top right and bottom left then you would have “C” in the middle, thus reading the X from left to right top to bottom it would be A-B-C-B-A. So what? Well Luke uses this form in his shorten recording of the Lord’s Prayer. He uses this form to emphasize the Lord’s teaching. There are 5 petitions in Luke’s Lord’s prayer. (A)Father, hallowed be your name, (B) Your kingdom come (C and the focused petition) Give us each day our daily bread (B) And forgive us our sins as… (A) And lead us not into temptation. By using this form to emphasize “give us each day our daily bread” Luke is saying that the Lord is teaching his disciples that above all that they daily must receive from the Father without which none of the other petitions could be accomplished. We need our daily connection or waiting on the Lord to accomplish the things we want done, even God’s will. John always wanted to write a book on emphasis. It may already have been done hiding in plain sight.

5. Douglas Barker
   September 11th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
   

   The English language has a word, kerygma. It means to preach. This comes straight from the Greek word kerussein. But it does not mean to preach in the Greek, it means to proclaim. In Isaiah 61:1f of the Septuagint, this word is found twice. In Luke 4 Christ reads this passage in the synagogue heralding forth his ministry. As the late Professor W.P. Friedrich commented on this passage by saying, “He proclaims, like a herald, the year of the Lord, the Messianic age. When heralds proclaimed the year of jubilee throughout the land with the sound of the trumpet, the year began, the prison doors were opened, and debts were remitted. The preaching (kerygma) of Jesus is such a blast of the trumpet.” We are fast approaching the day when we will blow the trumpets and herald in a new day, let it be with kerussein.