Chrys C. Caragounis - Jan Van der Watt, «A Grammatical Analysis of John 1,1», Vol. 21 (2008) 91-138
This article is a pilot study on the feasibility of investigating the grammar, both in terms of words and sentences, of the Gospel according to John in a systematic manner. The reason is that in general the commentaries and even specialized articles have different foci, inter alia, focusing on the historical nature or the theological and literary aspects that the Gospel is so well-known for. In surveys of commentaries on the Gospel it becomes apparent that real grammatical studies are far and few between, and that there is a tendency among commentators to copy grammatical material from one another. More often than not, grammatical issues are simply ignored and the unsuspecting and trusting reader will not even realize that there is a dangerous dungeon of grammatical problems lurking beneath the surface of the text. Apart from that, the significance of grammatical decisions are often underestimated in studies of John’s Gospel.
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A Grammatical Analysis of John 1,1
JAN VAN DER WATT & CHRYS CARAGOUNIS
1. Introduction
1.1 A problem
Jan vd Watt: This article is a pilot study on the feasibility of investiga-
ting the grammar1, both in terms of words and sentences, of the Gospel
according to John in a systematic manner. The reason is that in general
the commentaries and even specialized articles have different foci, inter
alia, focusing on the historical nature or the theological and literary as-
pects that the Gospel is so well-known for. In surveys of commentaries on
the Gospel it becomes apparent that real grammatical studies are far and
few between, and that there is a tendency among commentators to copy
grammatical material from one another. More often than not, gramma-
tical issues are simply ignored and the unsuspecting and trusting reader
will not even realize that there is a dangerous dungeon of grammatical
problems lurking beneath the surface of the text. Apart from that, the
significance of grammatical decisions are often underestimated in studies
of John’s Gospel.
1.2 The aim of the project
This project has the aim of reconsidering the wide spectrum of gram-
matical solutions, or probable solutions, that were offered for particular
grammatical problems. This is done in a comprehensive way, including
the following steps:
‣ As far as it is possible, the different solutions, or at least the most
prominent, offered in the history of research will be reflected, so that
the reader gets an overview of how any particular problem was ap-
proached and solved in the past. This represents a descriptive phase
and will focus mainly on the grammar of words within their imme-
diate syntactical contexts, i.e. the words immediately associated with
each other.
The word “grammar†is used to refer to different layers of language, for instance,
1
the grammar of words (morphology), the grammar of sentences (syntax). See P.G. Riddell,
“Language, Grammar and Syntax†in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible,
edited by Vanhoozer, K. J. (London: SPCK, 2005), 428-431, here 428.
FilologÃa Neotestamentaria - Vol. XXI - 2008, pp. 91-138
Facultad de FilosofÃa y Letras - Universidad de Córdoba (España)
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