I am studying for my Greek final that I will do as a take home tomorrow. So Greek is on the mind, worrying about Greek, obsessing about Greek. Soon it will be over.
Any, in John 4, we had to translate the story of the woman at the well. A trivial point that I never did get a chance to get my professor to respond to. In verses 4 and 15 the same verb is used.
It is "διερχεσθαι" in verse 4 and "διερχωμαι" in verse 15. Can you see the similarity?
Is there a word play going on? One that Greek speakers would pick up on and appreciate? But the contexts are a bit different.
In verse 4 the word refers to Jesus' "crossing over" from Judea to Galilee by passing through Samaria. The word, at it's root, means to cross over.
But in verse 15 the verb is used by the woman who hopes to no longer have to "cross over" to the well to draw water. Jesus has promised her special water. After she drinks it she will be thirsty no more. She has special reason to want that.
Usual English translations include the idea that she is coming from a distance. But more accurately the parallel is between Jesus who is crossing through unfriendly territory. She, as a woman of unsavory character, has to cross the property of people who disdain her and probably express their disdain out loud on a regular basis. She has to cross over unfriendly territory just as Jesus has and wishes to avoid it if she can.
So there is an interesting word play in the Greek. It's trivial I know but interesting just the same.
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2 comments:
I would need to see the whole sentences to know for sure, for context, but I suspect that both words are different tenses of the verb, to go through.
New Testament Greek is similar grammatically to modern Greek, but not exactly, but the first example, διερχεσθαι, would be "you cross over," (or "you are crossing over) and the second example, διερχωμαι, would be "I cross over" or "I am crossing over."
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