Sunday, May 21, 2023

John 7:18

Last month, when I watched the Daily Dose of Latin video on John 7:18, I noticed something that I hadn't noticed when I went over the same verse with the corresponding Daily Dose of Greek video about two years ago.


ὁ ἀφ᾽ ἑαυτοῦ λαλῶν τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν ζητεῖ· ὁ δὲ ζητῶν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ πέμψαντος αὐτόν, οὗτος ἀληθής ἐστιν, καὶ ἀδικία ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν.

qui a semet ipso loquitur gloriam propriam quaerit qui autem quaerit gloriam eius qui misit illum hic verax est et iniustitia in illo non est
In the ESV, this is translated as:
The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
In both the Greek and the Latin, the direct object in the first clause (τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν, gloriam propriam, "his own glory") comes before the verb (ζητεῖ, quaerit, "seeks").  The word order in Greek and Latin is more flexible than in English, so I wouldn't argue for this too strongly, but placing "his own glory" earlier in the clause could provide a sense of this person's vanity.  In terms of his priorities and even in the clause that describes him, his glory comes first.

The word order in the second clause is different (the direct object comes after the verb [or the participle, as it is in the Greek]), and this mirrors the contrast in these two men, signalled more explicitly with δὲ, autem, and "but."