7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

1/14

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

2/14

Mew

Test. Stud.

15, pp. 265-77

G. B. CAIRD

THE GLORY

OF GOD IN THE

FOURTH GOSPEL:

AN

EXERCISE

IN BIBLICAL SEMANTICS

NOv 8oac0r| 6Y165

TOO

dvQpcbirou,KOCI6Geos i8o&cr0r|

kv

avrrcp. Now

the

Son of Ma n is glorified, and God is glorified in hi m ' (Joh n x iii. 31). M uch has

been written on the glory and the glorification of Christ in the F ou rth Gospel,

but grammars, dictionaries, commentaries,

and

monographs

are

strangely

inadequate,oreven silent,

on

the kindred them e of the glory

of

God. W hat

does the Johannine Jesus mean when

he

says tha t God

is

glorified

?I

raise

this question, slight as itappears atfirst glance to be, partly because

of

its

intrinsic impo rtance

to

the theology of the Gospel, but also because

it

cannot

be answered

at all

withou t providing

a

most elaborate paradigm

for the

application of linguistic principlestoNew Testament exegesis.

I. THE INGREDIENTS OF MEANING

One reason for

the

neglect ofthis inquiry becomes ap par ent when

we ask

wh at we understand

by

m eaning. The meaning of any wordor expressionis

compounded in varying proportions of five ingredients: (a) dictionary

definition;

(b)

con textual de termination ; (c) the refe rent; (

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

3/14

26 6 G. B. CAIRD

referent; and both are integral

to

his m eaning. T hus,

if

we ask w hat J oh n

means when he says that the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in

him, one proper and accurate answer is that he means the Cross. The ' now'

of this verse

is

the hou r of

Jesus '

death, and John can use the aorist tense

because, with the departure of

Judas ,

all the actors in the drama, and Jesus

in particular,

are

comm itted

to

their courses

of

action, w hich make

the

Crucifixion virtually accomplished. Most commentaries provide some sort of

elaboration of

this

aspect of the verse's m ea nin g: the glorifying of God in the

Cross

is the

accomplishment

of

his saving purpose

of

love

for the

world

through the obedient self-surrender ofJesus, the process by which believers

are brought into unity with the Son and therefore also with the Father. But

no amount

of

elabo ration can alter the fact th at they are pointing

to the

referent of the word 'glorify ' without telling us any thing abo ut its sense. Th ey

are telling us (correctly) that John uses the verb 8o^6c3a0ai

to

denote the

Cross,

bu t no t wh at Jo hn wishes to say abo ut the Cross by the use of this verb .

My fourth and fifth ingredients are not commonly regarded as parts of a

word's meaning, though there

is

much

to

be gained by so regarding them .

How , for example, can we do justice to the statemen t tha t 'th er e are man y

dwelling-places in my Father's house', ifwehave not taken note of the links

of derivation and sound between the noun uovn. and the verb uivco, which is

one of Jo hn 's favourite w ords? A nd, when

the

RSV uses eight different

English words to render uvco,

in

pa rtial replace me nt of the one obsolescent

word 'abide ' , must

we not

admit that

the

resultant gain

in

clarity

and

modernity is offset by the greater loss of a cumulative and evocative appeal,

built

up by

the repetition of the one w ord

in

so many different contexts?

1

This point has an important application to the theme of our present discus-

sion. There are some utterances, e.g. ritual formulae,

in

which the emotive

and associative power of words is so much to the fore that

it

is

a

mistake

to

insist on defining their sense with precision, and

a

good example of this can

be seen in the doxologies of the Apocalypse. Conversely, solemn sonority and

evocative familiarity may lull us into thinking that we know what

a

word

means, when we ought

to be

prob ing more deeply into

the

history

of

its

usage.

2. CONTEXTUAL DETERMINATION

We began by asking what the Joh an nin e Jesus meant by saying tha t God was

glorified, and we must now rephrase the question: what sense does the word

'glorify' bear in this context, what semantic contribution does

it

make to the

sentence?

It

is

a

general lingu istic rule th at , ou t of a mu ltiplicity of possible

meanings, the meaning intended by the author or speaker is determined by

context. But what do we mean by context? No rmally we assume th at a word's

context is the sentence, the paragraph, or, in the last resort, the whole book

1

Th e words are : remain, stay, rest, abide, endure, continue, dwell.

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

4/14

THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL 267

in wh ich it is used. But this is to overlook the existence of a num be r of hidden

contexts which constantly determine the meaning ofour everyday speech.

There is the situationinwhichaword is used:in alaw court,alaboratory,

a stadium, a concert hall, a factory, or

a

ban k. T here is the tradition in w hich

the user stands, together with all the unconscious presuppositions itentails.

And finally there is his whole cultural background; many English words, for

example, mean quite different things according

as

they

are

uttered

in

Lond on, in Glasgow, in New York, in C alcutta, or in Tah iti. Th e prob lem of

Jo hn 's cultural b ackground has been the subject of prolonged de ba te: was he a

Hellene w riting for

Hellenes,

or a son of the Synagogue wr iting for men familiar

with the translation Greek of the L X X or, as Hoskyns argued , neither Jew nor

Greek, bu t a C hristian writing ou t of sixty years or more of Christian trad ition ?

1

The difficulty is th at we seem to be involved inacircular argum ent. We need

to know Jo hn 's backg round ifweare to determ ine the m eaning of his words,

but we have only his words with whichtodetermine his backgrou nd.

In this dilemm a the Jo ha nn ine uses of 86|cc and 6o&3co are of p ara m ou nt

importance, since no parallel tothem can be cited from ClassicalorKoine

Greek, but only from the LXX and works demonstrably written underits

influence, the Commentaries of

Philo,

the Hermetic Corpus, and the Magical

Papyri.A6oc is derived from the verb BOKETV,'to seem ', and in extra-biblical

Greek

it

has only two meanings:

(a)

'what seems

to

m e ' ,

'm y

opinion ' ;

(b)' what I seem to ot h er s ', ' my reputation '.

2

Correspondingly, 80^6300 means

' to form or hold an op inio n' o r ' to hold someone in high regard or esteem '.It

was no t until these words were used in the L X X as rendering s for li a s and *ra3

that they acquired the wider range of meaning familiar to readers of the NT.

The Hebrew noun nias is derived from aroot meaning 'w eig ht ', butit is

always used metaphorically to connote the weightaperson carries, his status,

importance, worth, impressiveness, majesty.In asecondary senseitconnotes

the honour or esteem accorded to worth, human or divine.I tthus belongs to

a class

of

attitude-words, found

in

man y languages, which

are

capable

of

both objective andsubjective me anin g. In English 'ho no ur ' , 'wo nd er ' ,

'horror' may all express either the subjective response or its objective cause.

But not all attitude-words have this double reference. In English the words

'majesty' and 'worth' connote status

or

quality, bu t n ot the corresponding

response, whereas 'esteem', and'res pe ct' connote response, bu t not the

status or quality which evokes it. Outside the LXX 56cc had only the subjec-

tive sense; but, because to this extent it overlapped with 1133,theL X X

1

'T he 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 took are Christian tools.'

(TheFourth Gospel, pp. 162-3.)

2

On the grounds of its use as the name for

a

woman or

a

ship A. Deissmann

(Die

Hellenisierung,

p.

165) and J . Schneider (Doxa,p p. 20 ff.) argued that665amust have had in Koine Greek a concrete

meaning connected with the brightness oflight.H. Kittel

(Die Herrlichkeit Gottes,

p p. 23 ff.) was able

to refute this suggestion by a list of fourteen abstract nouns used as names for ships. As the name for a

ship A6a has its counterpart in the English 'R en ow n'.

8 2

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

5/14

268 G.B. GAIRD

translators either assumed that it must already have the same double

reference as theHebrew term or, l ike Hu m pty Dum pty, decided topayit

extra andmake it work overtime. Now when a Hebrew word isregularly

rendered byaGreek one with whichitis not wholly synonym ous, one of two

things may happen: either the Greek sense will prevail, and thetranslated

sentence will convey a different meaning from that ofthe original; or the

Hebrew sense will prevail

and set up a

process

of

semantic change

in the

meaning ofthe Greek w ord. Socomplete was thesemantic chang e which

overtook 66cc and So^Ajco because of their use in the LXX, that they simply

assumedall themeanings andassociations ofthe Hebrew words theyhad

been used to translate.

It

is therefore to the L X X tha t we must go to discover

the sense they bear

in

the F ou rth Gospel. But, before we do th at, th ere

is a

point of Greek grammar which calls for our attention.

3 .

THE USES OF THE PASSIVE VOICE

In the verse we are investigating the verb SO^&JGOoccurs twice in the passive,

and most commentators have assumed without argument thatinboth cases

it isatrue passive. T he student of elementary Greek is told that an active ve rb

indicates an action done by the subject, andapassive verb indicates an action

done to the subject by another a gen t. He soon discovers that this

is

a grotesque

over-simplification. There are many passive forms which are not true passives

within the limits of this definition. There are deponents, of which noactive

form exists. But there are also many verbsinwhich bo th active a nd passive

indicate action doneby thesubject, thedifference being th at the one is

transitive and the other intransitive. 'Eyeipeiv means 'to raise' and yipEa0oci

'to rise'. 2x*3

Elv m e a n s

'

t 0

sp lit' (trans.) and oxfjeaOai 'tosplit ' (intrans.).

Moreover,

it

frequently happe ns th at

the

same passive form

can be

used

either as

a

true passive or as an int ran sitiv e. 3eCT0oci can mean ' to be sa ved ';

bu titcan also mean ' toreach safety', 'tocome safely throughanordealor

danger', 'to escape'^Though common enough in Classical Greek, such verbs

are more frequent

in the

L X X owing

to the

prevalence

of

Heb rew stative

verbs and denominatives,

2

and tothis po intI shall return later.

1

See e.g.

in the L X X

Gen. xix. 17, QO ,22: ElsT 6

6pos acjjjou...EKE

uto8^cropai...

tnrEuaov o5v

TOO

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

6/14

THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL 269

Midway between

the

tru e passives

and the

intransitive passives

are the

permissiveorcausative passives,inwhich theaction isdone to the subject

by another agent, but permitted orcaused bythe subject. The passivesof

verbs of seeing, finding, an d knowing a re the most obvious exam ples. ' I

let

myself be found by those who were not looking for me' (Isa. lxv. 1). 'The

Lord has risen and appeared toSim on ' (Luke xxiv. 34). ' H e made himself

known tothem (eyvcoaOrj) when hebroke the br ea d' (Luke xxiv. 35). But

there are many others.

1

Asadesignation of a par ticula r g ram matical relationship ' passive vo ice '

is accu rate eno ugh, but as a morphological description it

is

grossly misleading ,

and we ought not toallow the ty ranny of wordsorthe inhe rited errorsof

early grammarian s to lead us to false conclusions. Th e fact th at w e have been

hab itua ted to call passive both wh at I have called true passive and the in transi-

tive so-called passive isno gro und for thinking that the one is more natu ral, mo re

normal, more idiomatic than the other,ortha t the oneis primary and the

other derivative. In particular, in Jo hn xiii.31thereisno gramm atical w arrant

for supposing that we are dealing w ith one kind of passive rath er th an ano ther,

or that both instances of the passive are necessarily of the same kind.

'Now the Son of Man is glorified.' In this first clause of the verse thereis

every reason to conclude that we havea true passive.Inthe Cross, reg arded

as already accomplished, God

is to

glorify Jesus

in

his role

as

Son

of

M a n .

This is put beyond reasonable doubt by the immediate sequel ('God will also

glorify him in himself and glorify himatonce') and by the opening words of

the p raye r of Jesus in xvii. 1 ('F ath er, glorify yo ur S o n ') . On the Cross Jesus

is to be invested withanew access of divine glory. But h ere we are presented

with a question which carriesus tothe most intimate depths of Joh an nin e

theology. Why does Jesus pray toGod forsomething healready possesses?

The glory

of

God

is

God 's own essential worth , g reatness, power, majesty,

everything in him which calls forth man's adoring reverence; and this glory

has been shared from all eternity by the Logos (xvii. 5).

In

the Incarnation

God has willed that the eternal glory of the Logos should be communicated

to the man

Jesus,

so that others might see

it

and draw from

it

the conclusion

that he was the unique Son of God (i.14). This glory Jesusissaid tohave

manifested in his signs (ii. 11). If

we

wish to know w ha t is the referent of the

word 86ccinsuch passages as these, we c an identify it by comparing them

with other passages which have to dowith the revelatory character ofthe

deeds of

J e su s . '

If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me.

But if I am , believe the works, even if you do no t believe me, so that you may

recognize and know that the Father is in me, and I inthe Father ' (x. 37 -8;

cf. xiv. 11). If thenJesus,who is already one with the Father, prays for glory,

1

E.g . *y vlo6r|Ti' go thro ug h the ritu al of pu rific atio n' (Acts xxi. 24 ); T(.. . 6oypctrf 3E06E;' wh y do

yo u allow yours elves to be d ict ate d t o ? ' ( Co l. ii. 20 ). Cf. also:6SvE5oucnaj6iiEvosmoTi8^

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

7/14

27 0 G. B. GA IRD

it cannot be forhimself.The only possibility is that he prays as Son of Man,

as the inclusive representative, who by being lifted up from the earth was to

draw all men into unity with himself (xii. 32). The Incarnation had made it

proper for him to claim that he and the Father were one. The Cross made it

proper for him to pray for his disciples 'that they may all be one, as you,

Fath er, are in me and I in yo u '; and to add ' the glory you have given to me

I have given to them, that they may be one, as we are one' (xvii. 21-2).

All this seems to me clear e nough, bu t it does not help us to decide wh at is

meant by the second clause, 'God is glorified in him'. To be sure the same

word So{j6ca6r| is there used for a second time, but it cannot be used in an

identical sense. T he glorification of Jesus on the Cross means his endowm ent

with a glory which, at least in his representative function as Son of Man, he

has not up to that point possessed; and God cannot be glorified in this sense.

1

But, if the two uses are not identical, there is no reason to suppose they are

even examples of the same type of passive.

We are now in a position to draw up a list of the four possible meanings of

our clause, and to see what there is to be said for or against them.

1. (Truepassive) 'Through him God is held in honour' sc .by men.

2. (Truepassive) 'God is honoured by him' sc .by his obedience.

3. Causative passive)

'God has won honour for himself in him.'

4. Intransitivepassive)

'God has revealed his glory in him.'

The first and third of these renderings come closest to Classical usage, but

have nothing else to be said in their favour. As we have seen, the reference of

this verse is to the Cross, the po int w here the w orld clearly proves that it has

hated both Jesus and the Father (xv. 24), the point where Jesus is left alone

in his fidelity to G od, w hile the rest of the world remains in darkness (xvi. 32) .

It is incredible th at Jo hn should have intended to say that, at the m om ent of

Jesus'

death, men were holding God in high esteem, or that God had won

from them the acknowledgement of his supreme majesty. That was to come

later, through the missionary efforts of the apostles and the interpretative

guidance of the Paraclete, without whose help not even the most intimate

friends of Jesus could u nderstan d wh at had happ ened on C alvary. These two

interpretations have the further disadvantage of giving to 80^6300 a meaning

unrelated to the dominant Christological sense which S6a has throughout

this Gospel. Jesus does indeed at an earlier period of his ministry contrast the

66oc (recognition) which men seek from one another, and which blinds them

to the reality of the true 86oc (oneness with God) which he himself is content

to receive as a gift at the hands of his Father (v. 41-4; cf. vii. 18; viii. 50);

but this distinction only serves to show that elsewhere John is giving 56oc a

deeper significance than it has in colloquial parlance.

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

in Rom. i. 17-18.

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

8/14

THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL 27

Th e second rend ering has mo re to be said for it. Jesus ca n say,'I glorified

you on earth, by completing the work you gave me

to

d o ' (xvii. 4).

If

th e

whole life of Jesus wasa glorification of God, how much more could thisbe

said of his de at h But this interp retatio n has one serious gram m atical objec-

tion to it, that it involves the use ofkvw ith the d ative to express the age nt of a

passive verb. John nowhere else uses

kv

with the da tive of a personal agen t,

and for the NT asawhole the construction is attested on ly byafew doubtful

cases,

most

of

which are better explained

in

other ways.

1

Joh n, moreover,

appears to have avoided theuse of the passive,

2

preferring always those

constructions which allowed him

to

use his verbs

in

the active; an d

in the

only place where he clearly expresses the agent witha passive verb he uses

the classical

0TT6

with the genitive (xiv. 21). The difficulty of this in terpreta -

tion of kv ecu-rep becomes more acute when we turn from xiii. 31to xiv. 13:

' W hatever you ask

in

my n ame, th at

I

will do, so that the Father may

be

glorified

in

the Son ' (fvcc So^ocaQrj 6 TTccrfip

kv

T Ylw). This sentence comes

at the close of a long arg um ent in wh ich Jesus has claimed that to see himis

to see the Father, because he is

in

the Father and the Father

in

him. 'Th e

words which I sayto you I do not speak from myself.It is the Father who

dwells in me do ing his own w ork s' (xiv. 10). W hen Jesus speaks and acts, it is

the Father speaking andacting in him. When he answers thedisciples'

prayers,

it

is the Fat he r w ho is being glorified in the Son. The whole context

demands that this lastkv,like the others, should be local. But in that case it is

highly probable that kvOCUTW in xiii. 31 is also to be construed as local. This

conclusion becomes inescapable when weexam ine that verse as a whole.

'Now

the

Son

of

M an

is

glorified,

and

God

is

glorified

in

h im;

if

God

is

glorified inhim , G od will also glorify him inhimself, and glorify himat

once. '

God is to glorify the Son of Man 'inhimself,in his own being, in a new

actofm utua l indwelling; and here the

kv

OCUTCO

is unmistakably local.Itis

surely impossible

to

avoid

the

inference that

it

must

be

local also

in the

previous clause. The Son

of

M an

is to be

glorified

in

God and God

in

th e

Son of Man.

Once it is established that kv

OCUTCO

denotes the locus of God's glorification

and not its agent, there is

a

strong presum ption tha t the agent is Godhimself,

tha t God is glorified by his own action in bestowing glory on the Son of M an .

But, if that is so, then we have aba ndo ned the atte m pt to trea t 8ocia6r) as

a

true passive, and have begun to treatit as an intransitive passive. We turn,

accordingly,

to

the fourth possible re nde ring of the verse: ' Now the Son of

Man has been endowed with glory, and God has revealed his glory in him.'

This interpretation avoids

all the

objections

to

which

the

other three

are

exposed.Itallows the preposition kvits natu ral local sense, anditallows the

1

'Ev

CCUTQ SKT(

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

9/14

27 2 G. B. CA IR D

ve rb 6o&3&o its pro pe r links of sound and sense with the uses of the no un

86a throug hou t the G ospel. It is also thoroughly in keeping with Joha nn ine

theology. The theological argument of the Gospel falls into two almost equal

parts.

I n the first twelve chap ters Jo hn sets forth the p ublic ministry of Jesus

as a series of

signs,

which po int to the tr uth of the Inca rna tion , and he uses his

whole vocabulary of word-themes to produce a set of variations on this

subject. If men had the faith and insight to penetrate the meaning of the

signs, they would see in them evidence tha t in Jesus the etern al Logos had

assumed hum anity. They would see that God had bestowed on Jesus the

glory which the Logos had from the beginning (i. 14; ii. 11; xvii. 5), the

ability of the Logos to impart life to the world (i. 4; v. 26), the love with

which he had loved the Logos before the world began (iii. 35; v. 20 ; xvii. 24).

They would see that he was in the Fath er an d the Fath er in him (x. 38 ; xiv.

11).

They would see that, when he performed his works of mercy and life-

giving, it was the Father in him who was performing them: 'my Father is

working until now, and I am working' (v. 17); 'it is the Father who dwells in

me doing his own work' (xiv. 10). From this it follows that, if they see the

glory of

Jesus,

they will at the same time be seeing the glory of God. He who

sees the Son sees the Father also (xiv. 9); for in the sense in which John uses

'

see',

it is impossible to see the one w ithou t th e other. T he re is a good illustra-

tion of this in the story of Lazaru s. The story opens with a statem ent by Jesus

that the illness of La zaru s is 'for the glory ofGod,so that the Son of God may

be glorified by it' (xi. 4). Later Jesus says to Martha: 'Did I not tell you that

if you have faith you will see the glory of God ? ' (xi. 40 ). Jesus is said to be

glorified by this sign partly because it is the last of the series and leads

directly to his glorification on the Cross, partly because, like all the other

signs,

it is an occasion for his m anifesting of his glory. But th e glory of Jesu s is

the glory of Godhimself.W here Jesus is active, God is also at w ork, an d where

Jesus manifests his glory, the glory of God is also to be seen.

In the second half of the Gospel Jo hn is concerned to show th at the Cross is

the point w here the individual m anhood of Jesus, already taken up into

union with the Logos, becomes corporate and inclusive, so that in him

believers may enter into the same union. To this end he uses his complete set

of Christological terms afresh in a new setting. The glory, the life, the love,

the oneness with God, which were his by virtue of the Incarnation, are now

bestowed on him again, vicariously for the benefit of those who are to be

united with him by his passion. But the same principle still holds good that,

in endowing the Son of Man with glory, God is revealing his own glory.

There are two other verses which provide strong corroboration for this inter-

pretation of our text. 'Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, so that

the Father may be glorified in the Son' (xiv. 13). I have already argued that

the phrase

kvT

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

10/14

THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL 273

isolated life with the F ather. H e is looking forward to the time when , throu gh

the Cross, disciples will abideinhim andhe inthem . T hey willbe 'in the

Son'. Jesus promises to answer any prayers made to him in accordance with

his known will, because

in

this way the F ath er will be able

to

continue the

manifestation ofhisglory in the corporate life of the church. An even clearer

statement of this them e is found in the following ch apte r. 'T h is is the way my

Father's glory is revealed, that you should bear much fruit and so prove to

be

my

disciples'

(xv.

8). Jesus

is not

asking

his

followers

of

their own

effort and initiative to glorify God by means of their Christian witness. On

the contrary he is warning them that only by abiding

in

him , like branches

in a vine, sothat thelife andglory ofGod canstream throug h him to

manifest themselves

in

them,

can

they ever h ope

to

engage

in

effective

missionary enterprise.

It cannot,I think, be denied that the interpretation I have tried to put on

the verb 6o&3ea0oci makes very good sense of the contexts in which that verb

is used with God as its subject. The only outstanding objection toitis th atI

have not yet shown that this isapossible meaning for the verb. If I can show

th at th e passive of So^djco regu larly has in the L X X the senseIam proposing,

I shall be able with some confidence torest my case.

4 . THEEVIDENCE OF THE LXX

Ou r starting-point must be the two Hebrew verbs

1333

('to be glorified') and

tlpi

('to be sanctified '). Both these w ords are niphals. According to

grammarians the niphal is the reflexive stem of the Hebrew verb, though

in

fact the vast majority of niphals inthe O T are simply passive. Th e niph al

exhibits much the same variety of meaning as we have already found

in

the

Greek passive. Both "T333andanj?J are capable of being used as true

passives;

but

mo re frequently, particu larly

in

Ezekiel, they

are

used

in a

fashion that might bedescribed either asreflexiveor asintransitive. God

speaks of the day when he will be glorified or sanctified, i.e. when he will act

in such a way as to demo nstrate his glory and san ctity. The R SV has correctly

interp reted this usage. ' I will manifest my holiness am ong you in the sight

of the nations' (xx. 41). 'Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will

manifest my gloryinthe m idst of you. A nd they shall know th at I am the

Lord when I execute judgements inher , an d manifest my holiness in her'

(xxviii. 2 2 ). ' It will redou nd to their hono ur on the day th atIshow m y glory,

says the Lord God' (xxxix. 13).

1

These Hebrew niphals thus carry exactly

the senseIwish to attrib ute to Soa3ea0cu in Jo h n x iii. 31 , and the L X X uses

1

Cf. xxviii. 25 ; xxxvi.23;xxxviii. 16; xxxix. 27. In other books the RS V translators seem to have

suffered loss of nerve, since in one place they fall back on the less adequ ate rendering of the AV, 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 peopleIwill be glorified

(Lev. x. 3). Both these passages are from the Priestly Code and dependent on the usage of Ezekiel.

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

11/14

274

G

-

B

- CAIRD

6oa3a0cci and &yi&3a6cu to translate them. But it would be premature at

this stage to write

Quod eratdem onstrandum.

For not all LXX translations are

equally idiomatic Greek, and n ot all L X X innovations in Greek initiated th e

semantic change that would ensure their adoption as part of current speech,

even in the Synagogue. There were many solecisms, which were allowed to

stand in Scripture, but not imitated even by readers of Scripture. How then

can we be sure that the translators understood the Hebrew idiom in question,

or tha t their rendering was ever intended by them to convey wh at with all the

aids of modern linguistic scholarship we know to have been the sense of the

Hebrew? How do we know that they were not operating by rule of thumb,

assuming that a Hebrew niphal must always be translated by a Greek

passive, and allowing the sense to take care of itself? These are weighty and

proper questions, which require a far more detailed examination of LXX

evidence than can be given here. But I can at least illustrate the two types of

evidence which make me think that they are not fatal to my case. The first

poin t is th at these G reek passives, So^d^eoQai an d &yi&3ea0cci, are found from

time to time in com pany with other verbs which help to make their intended

meaning clear; and of this I shall give three examples.

{a)

KCCI UyccAuv6r|ao|jK3ci KOCI &yioca0r)aouca KOU vSoocCT0r|aonai KOU

yvGoadr)croiaoa EVOCVTIOV E0VCOV TTOXACOV, KCCIyvwaovTcu 6TI yci> elpi KOpios

'I shall reveal my greatness, my holiness, and my glory, and make myself

known in the presence of many nations; and they shall know that I am the

L ord ' (Ezek. xxxviii. 23). It is easy enough to justify this translation. Since the

passage describes a disastrous divine judgement, there can be no question of

God's being exalted, held in reverence, or honoured by men. The first four

verbs must denote a divine activity and revelation designed to bring about

the recognition expressed in the last clause. In the He brew , indeed , this inter-

pre tation is beyond do ub t. But in the G reek it is greatly eased by the presence

at the beginning and end of the list of verbs of nEyocAuv6i

)ao|jica and yvcoa9r|-

aouoci. For, although pieyccAuveaQcxi can be used as a true passive, meaning ' to

be exalted, pra ised', it

is

far more often used intransitively to mea n ' grow u p ' ,

'becom e gre at ' , 'acqu ire new status ', 'mak e a parade of greatness or po we r'.

And, although yivcboKEoflcu can also be a true passive, it is regularly used,

as we have already seen, as a causative, 'to make oneself known'.

(b ) KCCI uyco6r)aeToci Kupios Ecc(3occb0

EV

Kpfnorn,

KOCI6 0e6s 6 ccyios 6ooca0riaeTcu EV6iKaioauvr|.

'T h e Lord S abao th will show himself lofty in the dispensation of justice, and the

holy God will show himself glorious by seeing that rig ht is d on e' (Isa. v. 16).

Only rarely is uvyoOa0cci used as a true passive. Its regular meaning is 'to rise

to a great height', 'to grow to one's full stature', 'to display a lofty nature';

and its presence in the couplet is a guarantee that 8o&3a0cci is also being

used intransitively.

(c) NOv dcvcccrrricroncu, Aeyei Kupios, vuv Sooccr0r|o-onoa, vOv u^oo0r|aouai.

7/25/2019 S0028688500019147a.pdf

12/14

THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL 75

vuv 6vyEcr6e, vuv ala6i

| create'Now I shall arise, says the Lord , now I shall

display my glory, now I shall reach to the full height of my power. Now you

shall see, now you shall perceive' (Isa. xxxiii. 10). Here 6oacr0T