This is strikingly confused:
i) John doesn't say God loves the world. John didn't write in English. We've been conditioned by a traditional rendering, but that's prejudicial.
ii) John says God loves the kosmos. So the question is what kosmos means in Johannine usage.
iii) Yes, pas is indefinite, but that's not independent of the sentence in which it functions. Pas is qualified by "those who believe". So the combination makes it definite. Not "everyone" in general, but everyone who believes.
iv) There's a danger that when people read the Greek NT, they're not reading it from a Greek perspective. They're not getting inside the Greek. Rather, they're superimposing their knowledge of an English translation back onto the Greek. Not translating from Greek to English, but substituting English connotations for Greek words.
I have been working on a paper on this topic for a while - what does it mean to say God loves the kosmos. I am happy with the translation "world". As soon as I resolve in my own mind who the audience of John is, I should be able to finish this pretty quickly. But there is no plausible way "world" can mean "every single person" if one pays attention to the use of that word throughout the Gospel. Once the idea that "world" means every single person is off the table, the whole thing about pas being indefinite is moot. (There are a lot of people who think that world there means all humanity, btw., including Calvin.)
ReplyDeleteBtw. I show the diversity of Reformed thought about this passage here: https://bit.ly/2wbcN9U
ReplyDeleteI also commented on Mounce's page back when he posted that asking how he thought the context indicated that world meant believers and non-believers - or what is essentially everyone. Mounce would not even approve the comment. It's a real shame when people you once held much respect for do these strawman posts (i.e. attacking a view almost no one holds. He wrote that blog post because Brian Abasciano was emailing him to comment.) and then become intellectual wimps. I am serious about it being disappointing.
We've been conditioned by a traditional rendering, but that's prejudicial.
ReplyDeleteDoes the `we` in this sentence refer to the Reformed ? And is the `traditional rendering` the Calvinist one ? And does the `prejudice` in question refer to Augustine's influence on Western theology ?