Rogers on John 8:1-11 (1998)


Exerpted for review purposes from: C. L. Rogers Jr., & C. L. Rogers III,
The New LINGUISTIC and EXEGETICAL key to the Greek NT, (Zondervan, 1998)




Page Index

Last Updated: Feb 12, 2009 w. Unicode Greek

Section 1: - Introduction to Rogers' Notes
Section 2: - Grammatical Keys
Section 3: - modern footnotes

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INTRODUCTION

Background

The original Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament first appeared in 1978. This updated version (1998) has been vastly altered and updated according to the standards of scholarship of this period.

According to the Foreword,

..."The original purpose - to provide a "key" to aid in the understanding of God's Word - has remained foremost; but this has also been expanded in the hope of making the work more useful for the exegesis of the NT by providing pertinent informaiton to those who are studying a particular text. More grammatical expalanations are given, especially in the use of the tenses, participles, and infinitives; more comments and references to historical works have been added, and a wider range of source material for further study has been included. The Greek words are each given a number (the Goodrick-Kohlenberger number), keying the total work to The NIV Exhaustive Concordance, thus expanding the availability of this book to include those who may not have a working knowledge of Greek."

..."Many different grammars and commentaries have been consulted and cited in the work. The citation of a particular author or commentary does not necessarily mean that the given theological position or interpretation is accepted. The comment was simply deemed helpful in discussing the passage."

..."In addition we have attempted to have various levels of comments, both for those with little knowledge of Greek as well as for the more advanced student."

We have expanded and formatted the text (and added colorcoding), but have left it exactly as is as to the original content. The original format of the book had condensed dual columns, allowing alot of information to be compressed into its pages, but making for a difficult read.

We have included the preceding and following verses to the section, to show a bigger sample of what can be expected in the quality and detail from verse to verse (there is a lot of variation here), and to show how the 'joins' were handled.

We certainly can recommend this book for students. The linguistic commentary is on average better than A. T. Robertson's commentary, being of course more up to date and having access to a wider variety of citation material. There is thankfully little 'textual-critical' comment, but the text followed is simply that underlying the NIV, and no time is spent discussing the text chosen.

We have included only abbreviations and references actually used by the section quoted here. The full list of both is very large, but only necessary if you are going to purchase and use the book as a reference tool.


List of Abbreviations and Citations (in order of appearance)

aor. - aorist
imp. - imperative
act. - active (not listed in book)
(BAGD) - Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker (5th ed.) A Greek-English Lexicon of the NT
s. v. - "see verse" ...
ind. - indicative
pass. - passive
(dep.) - deponent
TC - B. Metzger, Textual Commentary on the Greek NT, (1971, UBS)
NTS - journal of, New Testament Studies
const. - constative
gen. - genitive
mid. - middle
impf. - imperfect
part. - participle
temp. - temporal
incep. - inceptive
Lev. - Book of Leviticus (O.T.)
Deut. - Book of Deuteronomy (O.T.)
SB - H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Test. aus Talmud und Midrash, 6 vols. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1965
perf. - perfect
esp. - especially
(Morris) - L. Morris, The Gospel According to John (London, 1972)
LNT - J. Duncan and M. Derrett. Law in the NT (London, 1970)
vb. - verb
pres. - present
inf. - infinitive
indir. - indirect
cond. - condition
neg. - negative (adjective)
subj. - subjunctive
purp. - purpose
obj. - object (noun)
(circum.) - circumstance
dat. - dative
w. - with
instr. - instrumental (grammatical term)
(MM) -
incep. -
Exod. - Book of Exodus (O.T.)
BBC - C. S. Keener, Bible Background Commentary: NT, (InterVarsity, 1994)
(Hoskyns) - E. C. Hoskyns, The Fourth Gospel, Oxford UP 1972)
sing. - singular
3rd. - 3rd person (grammatical term)
subst. - substantive
(Becker) - J. Becker, Das Evangelium nach Johannes. Okumenischer Taschenbuch Kommentar zum Newen Testament 4/1, 3rd. Ed. GTB Siebenstern, Gutersloh: Gutersloher Verlag, 1991
(RWP) - A. T. Roberston, Word Pictures in the NT, 6 vols. (Harper 1930)
Barrett - C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John: an Intro. w. Comm. and notes on the Grk. Text, (London SPCK 1958)
1QS - Samuel scroll from 1st cave; a Dead Sea Scroll (DSS)
1QM - scroll from 1st cave Dead Sea Scroll (DSS)
CD - Cairo Damascus Covenant (a copy of a Qumran/DSS document)
(TDNT) - G. Kittel, G. Friedrich ed. Theological Dictionary of the NT, 10 vols. Transl. G. Bromiley, (Eerdmans, 1973)


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Linguistic Key for John 7:53-8:11


7:52

εραυνησον aor. imp. act. εραυναω (#2236) to search, to examine, to investigate completely (BAGD),

ιδε aor. imp. act. s.v. 26.


7:53

επορευθησαν aor. ind. pass. (dep.) πορευομαι (#4513) to go.

For a discussion of the problem of this pericope s. TC, 219; 1 Daniel B Wallace, "Reconsidering 'The Story of Jesus and the Adulteress Reconsidered' " NTS 39 (1993): 290-296, w. bibliography.


8:1

επορευθη aor. ind. pass. (dep.) πορευομαι (#4513) to go. Const. aor. viewing the travel as a whole.


8:2

ορθρος (#3986) daybreak, early in the morning; gen. of time.

παρεγενετο aor. ind. mid. (dep.) παραγινομαι (#4134) to come to.

ηρχετο impf. ind. mid. (dep.) ερχομαι (#2262) to come.

καθισας aor. act. part. (temp.) καθιζω (#2767) to sit down. Aor. indicates antecedent action.

εδιδασκεν impf. ind. act. διδασκω (#1438) to teach; incep. impf., "he began to teach."


8:3

μοιχεια (#3657) adultery. According to Lev. 20:10 and Deut. 22:22 adultery was punishable by death (SB, 2:519; for a discussion s. D. Luhrmann, "Die Geschichte von einer Sunderin...," NTS 32 [1990]: 289-316).

κατειλημμενην perf. pass. part. καταλαμβανω (#2898) to seize, to take, often with hostile intent, catch, detect; esp. detection of adultery (BAGD). Perf. indicates "taken w. shame upon her." It points to her continuing character as an adulteress (Morris). It has been suggested that the husband set a deliberate trap in order to divorce her or have her stoned (LNT, 160-164; Morris).

στησαντες aor. act. part. ιστημι (#2705) to place, to stand. Aor. part. suggests the logically and temporally antecedent action to the following vb.


8:4

κατειληπται perf. ind. pass. καταλαμβανω (#2898) to seize s. v. 3.

αυτοφωρω (#900) (caught) in the act. Used of catching a thief or one in adultery (BAGD).

μοχευομενη pres. mid. part. μοιχευομαι (#3658) to commit adultery. Pres. suggests contemporaneous action to the main vb. They seized her just as she was in the process.


8:5

ενετειλατο aor. ind. mid. (dep.) εντελλομαι (#1948) to command.

τοιαυτας (#5525) such a one.

λιθαζειν pres. act. inf. λιθαζω (#3342) to stone. Inf. in indir. discourse. Only under the cond. of the persistence, after previous warning and after the actual witness of act by two competent witnesses, was one to be stoned for adultery (LNT, 160ff).


8:6

πειραζοντες pres. act. part. πειραζω (#4279) to tempt, to test, here in a neg. sense. He would violate either Roman law forbidding capital punishment or Jewish law contradicting Moses.

εχωσιν pres. subj. act. εχω (#2400) to have. Subj. to express purp.

κατηγορειν pres. act. inf., w. the gen. κατηγορεω (#2989) to accuse. Inf. as obj. They wanted to know if she could lawfully be stoned, under the circumstances (LNT, 174).

κυψας aor. act. part. (circum.) κυπτω (#3252) to stoop.

δακτυλω dat. δακτυλος (#1235) finger. Writing w. the finger was symbolic of divine legislation (LNT, 177). Instr. dat.

κατεγραφεν impf. ind. act. καταγραφω (#2863) to write down, to register (MM). Incep. impf., "he began to write down." Perhaps he was beginning to register the complaints or accusations. It has been suggested that Jesus wrote down Exod. 23:1b about it being wrong to join w. the wicked; here, meaning the conspiracy against the woman (LNT, 175-182; BBC).


8:7

επεμενον impf. ind. act. επιμενω (#2152) to remain. Impf., "as they continued to stay."

ερωτωντες pres. act. part. (circum.) ερωταω (#2263) to ask.

ανεκυψεν aor. ind. act. ανακυπτω (#376) to raise oneself up, to stand erect, to look up.

αναμαρτητος (#387) without sin. Used generally of innocence (Hoskyns).

βαλετω aor. imp. 3rd. sing. βαλλω (#965) to throw. Jesus insists upon the innocence and therefore the competence of the accuser and witness (LNT, 182). In this sense he is asking that the law be followed.


8:8

κατακυψας aor. act. part. (circum.) κατακυπτω (#2893) to stoop down.

εγραφεν impf. ind. act. γραφω (#1211) write. Impf., "He continued writing." It is suggested that He wrote Exod. 23:7a, a command to keep away from a false matter and leave judgement and retribution to God (LNT, 138f).


8:9

ακουσαντες aor. act. part. (subst.) ακουω (#201) to hear. Aor. is logically antecedent to the main vb.

εξηρχοντο impf. ind. mid. (dep.) εξερχομαι (#2002) to go out. Incep. or iterat. impf., "they began to go out and continued one by one."

αρξαμενοι aor. mid. (dep.) part. αρχομαι (#806) to begin.

κατελειφθη aor. ind. pass. καταλειπω (#2901) to leave alone.

ουσα pres. act. part. ειμι (#1639) to be.


8:10

ανακυψας aor. act. part. (circum.) s.v. 7.

κατεκρινεν aor. ind. act. κατακρινω (#2891) to condemn.


8:11

πορευου pres. mid. (dep.) imp. πορευομαι (#4513) to go. Pres. imp. w. a vb. of motion.

μηκετι (#3600) no longer.

αμαρτανε pres. imp. act. αμαρτανω (#279) to sin. She is a typical example of a forgiven sinner. Grace gives the chance to start over again (Becker).


8:12

αυτοις - them. It can refer to the Pharisees and the crowds in the temple (RWP).

ελαλησεν aor. ind. act. λαλεω (#3281) to speak.

φως (#5890) light. For the meaning of this and the description of the Jewish ceremony of lighting the huge golden candlesticks at the Feast of the Tabernacles - S. M, Sukkah 5:2-4; Barrett; BBC; Morris; 1QS 3:20; 4:8; 1QM 17:6; CD 5:18.

ακολουθων pres. act. part. ακολουθεω (#199) to follow, to follow as a disciple (TDNT). Subst. part. to express a necessary trait as well as a cond.

περιπατηση aor. subj. act. περιπατεω (#4344) to walk, to walk about. Subj. w. double neg. for a strong denial.

εξει fut. ind. act. εξω (#2400) to have, obtain.




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Modern Footnotes

Footnotes courtesy of Nazaroo:



1. The twin reference to B. Metzger (Textual Commentary, UBS), and Wallace, are about the worst choices for a clear and neutral discussion. Far better would be any of the following:

Scrivener, Plain Introduction
Hodge on John 8:1-11

Or Maurice Robinson, "Preliminary Observations Regarding the Pericope Adulterae Based upon Fresh Collations of Nearly All continuous-Text MSS and all Lecitonary MSS Containing the Passage." (Fil. Neot. XIII (2000), 35-39.)