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2024年1月15日星期一

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#2024-0115

Some more notes on

The Gospel of John, Chapter 1, Verses 12-14

Reading from the New Living Translation (NLT):

12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

14So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Reading from the Good News Translation (GNT):

12Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children. 13They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

14The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son.

Learning English from both translations:

Verse 12
(a) [from NLT] "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God."
(b) [from GNT] "Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children."

In NLT, the first nine words ("But to all who believed him and accepted him") is an adverb group indicating all the people (or "those individuals") that he gave the right. What kind of right is it? It's the right "to become God's children." This verse is translated into a complex sentence, with an adjective clause ("who believed him and accepted him") describing the pronoun "all" just before the adjective clause, which is also known as a subordinate clause, or a dependent clause.

In GNT, the verse is translated into a compound sentence, in which the pronoun "them" means those who "did receive him and believed in him"; that is, "some," the subject of the first ordinate clause. The second ordinate clause starts with a coordinating conjunction, "so." It's important to note that the first clause ends with a semicolon (;) instead of a comma (,) just because there is a transition word, "however," inserted in between the two commas in the clause. If there were no such transition word and no commas in there, then the first clause would simply end with a comma, not a semicolon; this is because the conjunction "so" could have joined the two clauses of this sentence.
Verse 13
(a) [from NLT] "They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God."
(b) [from GNT] "They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father."

In NLT, we see a sentence with only three words ("They are reborn") as its basic components or main components, followed by a dash (—) as well as other modifiers that describe what kind of birth "they are reborn." The point is that they are reborn with a birth that comes from God. (In this underlined phrase, there is an adjective clause included, modifying the antecedent, that is, the preceding noun "birth.")

In GNT, we see a compound sentence with two coordinate clauses. There is no conjunction (a function word like "and" or "but") at the beginning of the second clause; however, we see a semicolon (;) at the end of the first clause, and the semicolon functions like a coordinating conjunction in this context."
Verse 14
(a) [from NLT] "So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son."
(b) [from GNT] "The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son."

In NLT, we see three sentences; but in GNT, we see only two. The two diagrams below will show the differences between the two versions.

John 1:14, NLT

Note: The object of the third sentence above is explained with a noun phrase ("the glory of the Father's one and only one Son"), which functions as an appositive. From my perspective, the O and O' in this diagram refer to the same concept.

John 1:14, GNT

In the above diagram, the first sentence features the phrase "full of grace and truth," enclosed in commas, presenting a potential challenge in grammar analysis. Analyzing it from the initial words "full of," we see it appears to function as an adjective phrase, modifying a noun or noun phrase. When considering the entire phrase's meaning, we also see it as a modifier referring to the Word, the One who became a human being. The question arises: how can the second verb ("lived," marked as "V2") be modified by an adjective and not an adverb? The placement of this phrase may suggest it is an adverbial phrase, but the challenge lies in understanding how it fulfills this role. My interpretation is that it is originally an adverb clause, explaining why the Word lived among us. The subject and verb of this adverb clause seem to have been omitted, as indicated in the diagram.

Regarding the second sentence in the diagram, the object "his glory" is explained with its apposition "the glory" followed by an adjective clause ("which he received..."). Notably, the relative pronoun "which" functions as the object, not the subject, of the adjective clause. Additionally, the final five words of the clause, and thus the entire sentence, form an adjective phrase ("as the Father's only Son"). This phrase modifies either the subject "he" or the object "which." The two possible interpretations can be understood as follows:

(a) As the Father's only Son, he received the glory.
(b) He received the glory as the Father's only Son.

Which of the two options do you find more plausible? Do you have any alternative perspectives on this type of sentence structure that you would like to share with us?

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