Wednesday, September 05, 2018

The Use of AUTOS and Its Antecedents in 1 John 1 (Chapter One)

The following is a list of how AUTOS possibly functions in 1 John 1.
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1 John 1:3-The antecedent is TOU PATROS.
1:5-The antecedent is evidently IHSOU XRISTOU in 1:3.
1:5d-The antecedent is hO QEOS in 1:5c.
1:6-hO QEOS is again the antecedent.
1:7-Both AUTOS and AUTOU refer to hO QEOS as the phrase TOU hUIOU AUTOU makes clear.
1:10-hO LOGOS AUTOU also has reference to God's word (Go back to 1:5).
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4 comments:

  1. Duncan8:57 AM

    1 John 1:3-The antecedent is του πατρος.
    1:5-The antecedent is evidently Ιησου χριστου in 1:3.
    1:5d-The antecedent is ο θεος in 1:5c.
    1:6-ο θεος is again the antecedent.
    1:7-Both αυτος and αυτου refer to ο θεος as the phrase του υιου αυτου makes clear.
    1:10-ο λογος αυτου also has reference to God's word (Go back to 1:5).

    This is helping me to match sounds to characters!

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  2. Duncan9:06 AM

    Something that fascinates me & I have been trying to find information on is, why the definite article is translated the way it is? For example in 1:1 - "the word of the life". It seems like the second definite article should be expressed in some way - like capitals for LIFE or an exclamation mark (!)?

    I know that the definite article does not function in quite the same way as English and it can encompass whole phrases, so to have it twice like this is a significant emphasis?

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  3. Edgar Foster1:27 PM

    I'm glad the exercise is helping you. I'll address the definite article question later.

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  4. Edgar Foster10:17 PM

    To be honest, we don't always know why an author used the article in Greek. It is not always (often?) clear. The exegetical key by Rogers and Rogers calls attention to the genitival construction in 1 John 1:1, which the work notes could be "the content of the word or, as gen.
    of quality could indicate 'the living word'; it could indicate the object ('the life-giving word'), or it could be an epex. gen. ('the word which is life') (Stott; Marshall; Brown)."

    W. Hall Harris gives three options for the syntax of 1 John 1:1:

    1) genitive of apposition ("the word which is life"); 2) attributive genitive ("the life-giving word"); 3) objective genitive ("the word about life").

    He favors option 3) in view of what follows the genitival construction.

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