95 A Grammatical Analysis of John 1,1 2. The Grammar in a Micro Context – Suggestions and Solutions Jan v.d. Watt: There are several grammatical issues in John 1,1 that deserve attention: a) The use of ἐν8 ἀρχῇ b) The meaning of πρὸς τὸν θεόν c) The pre-positional use of the predicate in καὶ θεός ἦν9 λόγος 2.1 The use of ἐν ἀρχῇ10 2.1.1 The Status of the Research on ἐν ἀρχῇ in John 1,1a. ᾿Εν as a preposition with the dative is used for a wide variety of meanings (W. Arndt, 8 F.W. Danker, & W. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Based on Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen [sic] Literatur, sixth edition, ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, with Viktor Reichmann and on previous English edi- tions by W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich, and F.W. Danker.” (3rd ed.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2000 = BDAG); J.P. Louw, & E.A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition, Vol 1. New York: United Bible Societies [1989] 1996), but because of the use with ἀρχή, a temporal use is predetermined. The idea of a beginning / starting point is suggested by the use of ἀρχή. At this location in time the Word was already there (S.E. Porter, Idioms of the Greek New Testament, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press 1999, 158), and the dative case form is here used as locative (J. A. Walther, New Testament Greek Wordbook: An inductive Study of the Complete Text of the Gospel of John (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1966), 3. The voice of the verbs in (1,1) seems to be stative active. Stative active is when the 9 subject exists in the state indicated by the verb. This kind of active includes equative verbs (copulas).This usage is common, even routine (D.B. Wallace, The Basics of New Testament Syntax: An intermediate Greek Grammar. The abridgement of Greek grammar Beyond the Basics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2000), 30; 110-111;119-120; 181-182; 294; See E. de W. Burton, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in New Testament Greek, 2nd Edi- tion (Edinburgh:T&T Clark 1894), 73 which interprets the indicative here as a unqualified assertion or simple question of fact). Caragounis points out that it is perhaps not without interest to note that John 1,1 uses ἦν three times, each time with a different sense. This was first noticed probably by John Chrysostom, who in his commentary on John, Homily III, discerned existence in the first, relation in the second, and predication in the third ἦν. He expresses himself thus: ῞Οτι τοῦτο τὸ “ἦν” ἐπὶ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ εἶναι ἀϊδίως μόνον ἐστὶ δηλωτικόν· “ἐν ἀρχῇ’” γὰρ “ἦν” φησὶν, “ὁ λόγος”· τὸ δεύτερον δὲ ἦν τοῦ πρός τινα εἶναι. ... Εἶτα καὶ σαφέστερον αὐτὸ προϊὼν ἀπεκάλυψεν, ἐπαγαγὼν ὅτι ὁ Λόγος οὗτος καὶ Θεὸς ἦν. (quoted from the edition of John Chrysostom, ῎Απαντα τὰ ἔργα, Vol. 12: ῾Υπόμνημα εἰς τὸ Κατὰ ᾿Ιωάννην Εὐαγγέλιον (῞Ελληνες Πατέρες τῆς ᾿Εκκλησίας), (Θεσσαλονίκη· ᾿Εκδόσεις “Γρηγόριος ὁ Παλαμᾶς”, 1979), 484. This observation is accepted by modern commentators (see R.E. Brown, The Gospel according to John (AB), 2 Vols., (London et al., Geoffrey Chapman, 1971), 4). There is widespread consensus that ἀρχή refers to time. R. Schnackenburg, The Gospel 10 according to St John, Vol 1 Herder: New York 1968, 233 rejects the early ideas (Chrysostom and others) that ἀρχή here refers to “the principle from which the Logos is generated”.