Tuesday, November 18, 2014

John 1.1: "with God" does not mean Person.



“True, in literary Greek [‘with’] is not a common sense of pros…” 
F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John, p 30.

“[One view takes] pros as equivalent to para, denoting ('with'). [Most English versions simply have 'with God', but some emphasize the local sense: 'in God’s presence' (NAB, REB), 'by the side of God' (Cassirer).] The preposition does not imply any movement or action on the part of the Logos…Support for this view may be found in the NT parallels where pros + the accusative, often following the verb einai, denotes not linear motion but punctiliar [i.e. not moving] rest…Elsewhere John uses para tini to express the proximity of one person to another [1.39; 4.40; 8.38a; 14.17, 23, 25; 19.25. Note also mera tinos (e.g., 3.22, 25-26)] or the nearness of the Son to the Father [8.35; 17.5], never pros tina.

[Dewailly (128) rightly warns against discovering in John 1.1b 'all the patristic and conciliar Christology which was much later attached to it, still less the speculation of Eastern or Western traditions concerning existential relations.' Some commentators seem to have erred here. Bengel, for example, claims that 'pros…denotes a perpetual, as it were, tendency of the Son to the Father in the unity of essence' (2:234). Alford alleges that 'both the inner substantial union, and the distinct personality of the logos are here [in 1:1b] asserted' (1:681).]” 
Harris, Jesus as God, pp 55-57.

“Moloney (1998:35) says that pros connotes motion, not just ‘with’, and translates it ‘turned toward’. Yet any force of motion inherent in pros is overridden by the [static verb, was/is] (Wallace 1996: 358-59; Schnackenburg [1990: 1.234] also rejects the idea.)”  
 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), Andreas J. Köstenberger, p 27, f. 22.

“[Pros] can signify that the logos is oriented toward God (1 Thess. 1.9), that it has access to God (1 John 3.21), that it stands in a suppliant position to God (Jon. 1.5 LXX; Dan 14.5 LXX [Bel and the Dragon 5]; Mark 6.25), or that it is in league with God (Josephus, J.W. 7.221). In the Septuagint, Moses is described as one who is pros ton theon to signify his authority over Aaron (Exod. 4.16 LXX) and the people (Exod. 18.19 LXX).” 
John, Jo-Ann A. Brant, pp 28-29.

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