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The Glory of God in the Fourth Gospel: An Exercise in Biblical Semantics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

G. B. Caird
G. B. Caird
Affiliation:
Oxford, Endland
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Extract

Nũν ⋯δοξ⋯σθη ⋯ Υἱòς τοũ ⋯νθρώπου, κα⋯ ⋯ Θεòς ⋯δοξ⋯σθη ⋯ν αὐτῷ. ‘Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him’ (John xiii.31). Much has been written on the glory and the glorification of Christ in the Fourth Gospel, but grammars, dictionaries, commentaries, and monographs are strangely inadequate, or even silent, on the kindred theme of the glory of God. What does the Johannine Jesus mean when he says that God is glorified? I raise this question, slight as it appears at first glance to be, partly because of its intrinsic importance to the theology of the Gospel, but also because it cannot be answered at all without providing a most elaborate paradigm for the application of linguistic principles to New Testament exegesis.

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Articles
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , April 1969 , pp. 265 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

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References

page 266 note 1 The words are: remain, stay, rest, abide, endure, continue, dwell.

page 267 note 1 ‘The workshop in which the Word of God was forged to take its natural place among the great theological descriptions of Jesus and His work is a Christian workshop: the tools are Christian tools.’ (The Fourth Gospel, pp. 162–3.)Google Scholar

page 267 note 2 On the grounds of its use as the name for a woman or a ship Deissmann, A. (Die Hellenisierung, p. 165)Google Scholar and Schneider, J.(Doxa, pp. 20 ff.)Google Scholar argued that δòξα must have had in Koine Greek a concrete meaning connected with the brightness of light. Kittel, H. (Die Herrlichkeit Gottes, pp. 23 ff.)Google Scholar was able to refute this suggestion by a list of fourteen abstract nouns used as names for ships. As the name for a ship Δòξα has its counterpart in the English ‘Renown’.

page 268 note 1 See e.g. in the LXX Gen. xix. 17, 20, 22: Εἰς τò ὅρς σῴЗου … ⋯κεī σωθ⋯σομαι … σπεũσον ούν τοũ σωθ⋯ναι ⋯κει ‘escape to the hills… there I shall be safe… hurry then and make your escape there’; and cf. Kingd. xix. 12, 18; Job i. 15, 16, 17, 19; Isa. xx. 6; Jer. xxxi (xlvii). 19; xlviii (xli). 15. In the NT, σώθητε ⋯πò τ⋯ς γενε⋯ς τη⋯σ σκολι⋯ς τα⋯τηs (Acts ii. 40) is correctly translated by Weymouth, ‘Escape from this crooked generation’; and σώθ⋯σεται δ⋯ δι⋯ τ⋯ς τεκνογονΙας (I Tim. ii. 15) is a promise that a Christian wife will come safely through the perils of childbirth, which are the entail of God's curse on Eve.

page 268 note 2 In the following pairs the first is a true passive and the second an intransitive:

1aοπως τò δνομά τò παράπαν μή βεβηλωθ⋯ (Ezek. xx. 9).

bΕβεβηλώθη ο λαòς—‘the people acted profanely’ (Num. xxv. 1).

2aΕμιάνθη ή γ⋯ (Lev. xv. 32).

bΟύ μιανθήσεσθε έν τούτοις— ‘You shall not incur defilement through these’ (Lev. xi. 43).

3Παντιεις με ύσσώπυ και καθασισθήσομαι (Ps. I (li. 9).

b∧οσαι και καθαρΙσθητι (4 Kingd. v. 13).

page 269 note 1 E.g. άγνΙσθητι— ‘go through the ritual of purification’ (Acts xxi. 24); τΙ… δογματΙЗεσθε— ‘why do you allow yourselves to be dictated to?’ (Col. ii. 20). Cf. also; ò ένεξουσιαЗóμενος μισηθήσεται—‘one who abuses his position gets himself hated’ (Ecclus. xx. 8); and έκ γάρ τ⋯ν τοιούτων άλαπηθήση—‘by so doing you will win his affection’ (ibid. vii. 35).

page 270 note 1 The temptation to assume that two instances of the same word in a single context must be exactly synonymous has been the ruin of much exegesis. Cf. for example the repeated use of άποκαλύπτεται in Rom. i. 17–18.

page 271 note 1 Εν αύτῷ έύκτισθη τά πάντα (Col. i. 16) is hardly a case in point. Εν άνδρι (Acts xvii. 31) and έν ύμτν (I Cor. vi. 2) are instances of a common legal terminology. Eν τῷ άρΧοντι τ⋯ν δαιμονΙων (Matt. ix. 34) denotes the means or mediate agent rather than the ultimately responsible agent.

page 271 note 2 See Abbott, E. A., Johannine Grammar, § 2373.Google Scholar

page 273 note 1 Cf. xxviii. 25; xxxvi. 23; xxxviii. 16; xxxix. 27. In other books the RSV translators seem to have suffered loss of nerve, since in one place they fall back on the less adequate rendering of the A V, and in the other they produce a curious hybrid. ‘I will get glory over Pharaoh’ (Exod. xiv. 4, 17, 18). ‘I will show myself holy among those who are near me, and before all the people I will be glorified’ (Lev. x. 3). Both these passages are from the Priestly Code and dependent on the usage of Ezekiel.

page 276 note 1 Plat. Menex. 247c: άμελήσαντας δέ ύμ⋯ς καικισθέντας ούδεΙς εύμεν⋯ς ύποδέξεται— ‘if you give the impression of indifference or cowardice, nobody is going to be pleased with your company’.

page 277 note 1 Demosth. 853.5: καίπ ούτω τούτου σέσοϕισμένου— ‘even if he did conduct himself in this crafty manner’. Cf. άκαίρως μή σοϕίЗου—‘do not show off your wisdom at the wrong time’ (Ecclus. xxxv (xxxiii) 4).

page 277 note 2 Aesch. Agam. 1205: άβρύνεται γάρ π⋯ς τις εά πράσσων νήρ—‘in prosperity every man puts on delicate airs’. Plat. Apol. 20c: έγώ γου και αύτδς έκαλλυνóμην τε καί ήβρυνóμήν άν ει ήπιπτάμην ϒαūτα—’I can assure you that, if I had that knowledge, I should have put on all kinds of airs and graces.’.

page 277 note 3 Soph. phil. 1387: ωτ⋯ν διδάσκου μή θρασύνεσθαι κακοις—‘My dear fellow, you must learn not to brazen it out when things go wrong.’.

‘She looked me all over from head to foot, Pouting with her lips and glancing through half-closed eyes, And she did a lot of feminine things with her shape, and with a leer And a flounce laughed me to scorn.’