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To: MHGinTN; Elsie; metmom; ealgeone; aMorePerfectUnion
Here is my translation in Post #216:

>> "Unless a human is born of water and spirit he is not able to enter The Kingdom of The God" <<

The phrase of concern in your Greek and mine is:

>> ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος <<

I dragged out my copy of Wittman's "THE GOSPELS: A Precise Translation" and here is his rendering of that phrase:

"Unless anyone 1be born2 by3 means of water4 and 5Spirit "
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Notes:

1 subjunctive mode
2 begotten
3 ablative of means when genitive case follows ἐξ
4 refer to Eph. 5:26
5 anarthrous (means without definite article)
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My hasty rendering was not the best way to present the enclitic indefinite pronoun "τις" as "human" because I followed the KJV translation "a man", when it should have been "anyone."

Also, "born" or "begotten" is in the punctilinear aorist tense (it happened).

As a further observation, ἐὰν here is followed by the subjunctive, which places it in the third class of conditional use, which means "if (and it may be so)"; thus the first four words may be translated:

"If (and it may be) anyone was not born . . ."

To conclude that phrase, the translation continues ". . . by means of water and Spirit . . ." as Wittman has done. The word for word rendering would be "If not anyone was born by means of water and Spirit . . ." is rather awkward, so the various translators have replaced "if not" with "except" (KJV) or "unless" for smoothness. However, I think the word-for-word is just a bit more correct in unifying water and spirit as two parts of one single birth operation.

Note that Wittman clearly brings in the reference to "τω λουτρω του υδατος εν ρηματι = the washing of the water by SpokenWord" regarding the symbolism of water in the phrase being considered.

I regret pestering you with this insistence on translation detail; but somehow once I get an idee fixe* in my noggin, it usually takes a stick of dynamite to dislodge it. Ask Elsie. And forgive me for boring you . . .
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* An idée fixe is a preoccupation of mind believed to be firmly resistant to any attempt to modify it, a fixation. The name originates from the French

232 posted on 08/01/2018 6:33:57 PM PDT by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
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To: imardmd1
...once I get an idee fixe* in my noggin, it usually takes a stick of dynamite to dislodge it.

You ain't alone in this.

We ALL suffer from some type of Confirmation Bias.

240 posted on 08/02/2018 5:12:54 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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