Out of this world...data

This post is in response to the Pharoah's comment in my previous post. I think these data are important enough not to get buried in a comment.

First off, the phrase ek tou kósmou (including ek toútou tou kósmou) occurs 18 times in 11 verses in the NT. All but 1 occurrence (1 Cor 5:10) ALL the rest come from the Johannine literature.

Gospel of John 14x
8:23 (2x)
13:1
15:19 (3x)
chapt 17 (6x) v. 6, 14, 15, 16
18:36 (2x)

1 John (3x)
2:16
4:5 (2x)

So? Well, I'm not sure, but it sure seems interesting to me that this is primarily a Johannine phrase, and that it occurs 12/18 times in about a 12 hour period the night and early morning of Jesus' arrest, 6 of those times in Jesus' prayer in John 17. What is the significance of that? Isn't all scripture inspired? Sure...but this context must be considered in any interpretation of the phrase.

OK, R.P. now to your question. Well, before that, interesting observation about your "chiastic" image. (How long have you waited to use that word?)

NOW, to your question about a "clarification of the genitive used here. To what extent was Jesus "ek tou kosmou"? I think we need to look at the whole phrase and ask how that is used, not just the genitive, but ek + gen. Well, prepositions can be pesky critters. "In general, the more common a preposition is, the more varied are its uses" and ek is the 3rd most frequent preposition (behind eis and en) with a frequency of 914x! (Wallace, Beyond the Basics, p. 357). So one has a number of "options" to choose from.

Again, citing Wallace, p. 371:

"In general, ek has the force of from, out of, away from, of.

1. Source: out of, from

2. Separation: away from, from

3. Temporal: from, from [this point] . . . on

4. Cause: because of

5. Partitive (i.e., substituting for a partitive gen.): of

6. Means: by, from"

I think "source" best fits this passage. BDAG (sv. ek) cites John 17:14 as a "marker denoting origin, cause, motive, reason, from, of... to denote origin as to family, race, city, people, district, etc."

Again, your question, "to what extent was Jesus not "ek tou kosmou"? I think it indicates that ultimately, he has his "citizenship" else where. Spanish has a very similar construction: ¿De donde es? Where are you from? The question means "Where were you born, or where are you from originally." Not where do you currently reside. Jesus is from above. In fact, he makes this clear in John 8:32 "You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world." But there he was, big as life...physically residing in this world...in the world, but not 'of' it.

And we, too, are aliens, with our citizenship in heaven...in the world, but not not of it.

And my original question in the previous post, might not the Kingdom be "in the world, but not of it"?

This makes the preponderant usage in John 13-18 much more understandable.