Post by ResLight on Jul 30, 2022 21:36:30 GMT -5
One is claiming that John put a double negative in John 1:3 to show that there was absolutely nothing that was ever created is excluded. The claim is that what John wrote was like saying, "Nothing, and I mean Nothing, will keep me here listening to this."
I do not see anything in John 1:3 that presents a double negative, at least not in the sense as you describe. The negative word often transliterated as "oude" (meaning "not") appears only once in John 1:3. I suppose the Greek word "chÅris" (meaning apart from, often rendered as "without") could be considered a negative, but I don't think most scholars would consider its usage with "oude" to what is generally referred to as a "double negative." It certainly does not correspond with the idea of saying, "Nothing, I mean nothing."
Some scholars consider the word "oude" itself can mean what they consider to be a double negative, as in the English expression "not even". Such, however, is not inherent in the word "oude" itself, but more a way to express its usage in English.
Nevertheless, even if John had written forms of oude twice in John 1:3, or if he meant "oude" in the sense of the English expression "not even", it would still not mean that we should imagine and assume that he was speaking of absolutely everything in the entire created universe, including the angels. It would simply emphasize that nothing in the world of mankind that God had created through Jesus was made without him.
References:
biblehub.com/text/john/1-3.htm
biblehub.com/greek/3761.htm
biblehub.com/greek/5565.htm