[B-Greek] Revelation 1:18
Harold R. Holmyard III
hholmyard at ont.com
Tue Jul 12 15:52:52 EDT 2005
Dear Stephen,
>In chatting to some JWs recently, we discussed Rev 1:18 where the First and
>the Last states that "I was dead" (NIV). In the New World "translation",
>"became dead". Looking in my GNT it is written
>
>EGENOMHN NEKROS
>
>The usage of GINOMAI struck me as curious and the notion of "becoming dead".
>Would a use of EIMI NEKROS have worked too? Should we understand "becoming
>dead" as being in the state of deadness? I'd be interested to read any
>thoughts regarding this, regarding the use of GINOMAI as an auxiliary verb
>etc. Also, if you have any references that discuss these types of questions,
>I'd be pleased to hear from you
HH: GINOMAI can be translated as "was." The second main meaning for
GINOMAI according to BAGD lexicon is "as a substitute for the forms
of EIMI." EIMI is the standard Greek verb for representing the "to
be" idea. In English do we really talk like the New World
translation? At least it sounds odd in my ears: "I became dead." It
seems more natural to say, "I died" or "I was dead." (Of course, how
often does anyone talk that way at all?) The verse (Rev. 1:18) seems
to describe a stative condition. Jesus was in one state, that of
deadness, and he is now is in another, aliveness. In a technical
sense the New World translation is perfectly possible. The question
is what part of GINOMAI's scope of meaning the writer of Revelation
had in mind. Since he uses EIMI in the same verse with "alive," the
New World Translation may have been tryng to preserve the difference.
Yet the difference may have been so subtle in Greek that their
attempt in English is too much.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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