Jesus "breathed" and said...

Tom Belt virginia at destination.com.lb
Sat Feb 13 02:05:16 EST 1999


Friends-

In John 20:22 ENEFUSHSEN usually gets translated "breathed on
them" ("...after this he breathed on them [the disciples] and said..."). In
his commentary on John, D. Carson argues that in the dozen or so uses of the
verb in the LXX (I could only find three or four) there is always some
additional word added to convey the idea of “in” or “upon” when that was the
intended meaning. He argues also that the use of the verb outside the NT
does not suggest the preposition “in” or “upon” was part of the meaning of
the verb (but gives no examples). Thus, the verb ENEFUSHSEN by itself simply
means “he breathed” or perhaps “he exhaled.” The picture that emerges from
John 20 is not that of Jesus going to each disciple and "blowing" on them.
Notice too that KJV italicizes the object of the verb ("them"),
acknowledging that the original text does not contain the object.

So what did Christ actually do? Any thoughts?

Tom
virginia at destination.com.lb
Beirut, Lebanon







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