r/Koine • u/VividSuspect4977 • 20d ago
John 1:16
What would be your preference in translating the phrase "charin anti charitos" in John 1:16?
Grace upon grace? (Accumulation connotation)
Grace in place of grace?
Grace in exchange for grace?
Grace after grace?
Grace for grace?
Other? Give me your best reasoning!
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u/VeritasAgape 16d ago
The next verse helps. He brought grace to replace the grace of the law. Through what He did for us we're no longer under the Mosaic Law (Hebrews 8, Romans 6-7) but have the special grace of the Church Age.
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u/Lower_Cockroach2432 20d ago
Honestly I think it's an evocative symbol that we don't necessarily have the keys to unlock anymore. John's definitely the most mystical Gospel and I wouldn't be surprised if that line is doing work trying to explain John's view of Christianity to people who saw the world in lost Greek or other schools of thought.
He already does this with the core Greek school term λόγος so it wouldn't be entirely beyond the pale.
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u/VividSuspect4977 20d ago
Interesting take. πληρώματος in the same verse does remind one of the major philosophical category of the πλήρωμα...
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u/Lower_Cockroach2432 20d ago
I think it's worth meditating on unusual idiom. It's very easy to handwave away comparisons to Attic with "well it's a simplified language so clearly they're using prepositions (or whatever) looser" but I think it's sometimes worth thinking that rather than using a certain form in a sloppy way, maybe they're trying to evoke something more than what the standard translations give us.
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u/Hieropsaltes 20d ago
The Evangelist explains his meaning in the next sentence. The grace (or favor) we received in the place of a previous grace is the grace and truth (reality) that came through Jesus Christ, which replaced the former grace, the law given through Moses (which was but a shadow and type of the reality to come).