Tuesday, August 17, 2010

1 John 1:1-4

1Ὃ ἦν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν, περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς 2καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη, καὶ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν 3ὃ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπαγγέλλομεν καὶ ὑμῖν, ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ' ἡμῶν. καὶ ἡ κοινωνία δὲ ἡ ἡμετέρα μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. 4καὶ ταῦτα γράφομεν ἡμεῖς ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡμῶν ᾖ πεπληρωμένη. 
1 John 1:1-4
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we [impressively] beheld and our fingers touched, concerning the Word of Life-- And the Life was revealed, and we have seen it, and we are testifying to it and we are proclaiming to you eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us.  We are proclaiming to you what we have seen and heard so that you may also have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is also with the Father and with his son Jesus, the Anointed One.  We are writing to you these things so that our joy may be completed.
ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα is normally rendered, “Which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked at (beheld)”.
Most of the time, the these two greek verbs mean the same thing: to see.  I believe in this passage that ἐθεασάμεθα means something more, thus my inserted word [impressively].  It could also be rendered, “which we looked at [and we were impressed].  One can’t over read into a text, but I believe the author intended for us to see a little more here than “we looked at”.

θεάομαι,v  \{theh-ah'-om-ahee}
1) to behold, look upon, view attentively, contemplate (often  used of public shows)  1a) of important persons that are looked on with admiration  2) to view, take a view of  2a) in the sense of visiting, meeting with a person  3) to learn by looking, to see with the eyes, to perceive   For Synonyms see entry 5848 

1 comment:

  1. They got closer and beheld Him more completely once they received the Spirit. They moved beyond seeing and touching physically to experiencing that very Spirit from within. Impressive indeed!
    Thank you Russell.

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