Well...no promises to actually answer your questions, but perhaps I can shed a little concerning your questions....
bacon wrote:1. My first question is on the usage of ήμετεÏῶν versus ήμῶν. What are the general rules in using the two forms of "our"? Why the two forms in this verse, both are concerning "our sins"? The second usage seems to be as a noun(?), and takes the genitive because of the preposition and the first is genitive because it is showing possession and is not contained in the prepositional phrase(correct me if this is wrong).
Well, first I must say....ήμετεÏῶν is relatively rare in the GNT. It only occurs 7 times...twice in Acts, three times in the Paulines, and twice in 1 John. It also must be mentioned that 1 John is very debated as to whether or not John actually wrote it. The Greek in it is far better than any of the Johannine Corpus, which leaves a lot of people scratching their heads. FWIW, I think John wrote it (the content is certainly Johannine), but that he used a well educated emanuensis who was allowed a degree of influence on the letter. I don't know any hard and fast rules if using ήμετεÏῶν as opposed to ήμῶν. Wallace has an interesting note in his GGBTB concerning pronouns.
Wallace wrote:Grammarians are not agreed as to what distinguishes a pronoun from an adjective. Indeed, many terms are given double labels (adjective and pronoun [i.e., substantive]) in BAGD. Young (Intermediate Greek, 71) notes that “the distinctions between different kinds of pronouns and even between pronouns and adjectives are often blurred. . . . Pronouns that function as pronouns agree with their antecedent in gender and number. Those that function as adjectives agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case.†The problem with this distinction is that it gives no criteria for telling whether a word is a pronoun acting like an adjective, or an adjective acting like a pronoun. Are the terms emos, sos, hmeteros, and umeteros adjectives or pronouns? They predominantly function in a dependent role, modifying a noun. In all syntactical respects they behave just like adjectives, yet many grammarians consider them to be pronouns.
Pardon the transliterated Greek...I'm feeling a little lazy tonight
Perhaps William or some others with a greater Classical background than I could shed a little light on the difference between the two. It could be that John is simply trying to have a bit of style in his writing. I know that I do that when I write, I don't like to use the same word too often, I prefer to use my vocabluary and use synonyms whenever possible...it just makes a better read.
bacon wrote:2. The phrase, "αá½Ï„ὸς ίλασμός á¼ÏƒÏ„ιν...". I was considering three possibilities for this and would be interested in any comments on them.
a. He is propitiation... Perhaps awkward in English but could be like, He is satisfaction... Is this sense awkward in Greek?
b. He is a propitiation... Grammatically fine but ruled out by context of both the letter of 1 John and the NT as a whole. Jesus is certainly not presented as just one of several "propitiations".
c. He is the proptiation... Very much the preferred translation on grammatical grounds and context. Would the use of the article before ίλασμός as in English ever be acceptable? or would this make ίλασμός the subject, as in The propitiation is He...?
Thanks for any comments.
This is a definite predicate nominative. Cf. also with Matt 4:3, 6; 5:34, 35; 13:39; 14:33; John 3:29; 10:2; 11:51; Acts 13:33; Rom 1:16; 10:4; 1 Cor 4:4; 11:3; 2 Cor 6:16; Gal 3:25; Jas 2:23.
The correct translation of the phrase would be your option #3. As far as translating it "The propitiation is he"...first, that doesn't sound like good English to me (although Yoda might disagree with me), and second...I would stick with the word order in Greek. Although it truly doesn't matter what order it is in Greek it just makes more sense to have the conrete substantive before the abstract substantive. I hope this makes some sense to you. It all makes sense to me, but you can't really crawl in my head, and I don't know if I've 'splained myself well enough...it is pretty late
