Subjunctive in Mt. 16:28

Byron P. Knutson byronk at open.org
Sun Sep 20 02:46:25 EDT 1998


>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Subject: Subjunctive in Mt. 16:28
>From: "Phylax" <phylax at aracnet.com>
>Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:01:58 -0700
>X-Message-Number: 1
>
>    Looking at Matthew 16:28, there  are two subjunctives:
>
>... hOITINES OU MH GEUSWNTAI QANATOU EWS AN IDWSIN TON UION TOU ANQRWPOU
>ERCOMENON ...
>
>    I would expect GEUOMAI to be in the indicative and don't know what to
>make of it in the subjunctive.
>
>    I won't bother to speculate and illustrate how little I really know
>about these things.  :)
>
>    Thanks -
>    Steven Schultz
>
>
If I might be so bold as to add my 2 cents.

When ever the subjunctive is used, the first thing you know is that there is
an element of doubt introduced.

1.  It may be the certainty of the thing referred to.
or
2.  If not the certainty of the thing or event, then the time of it is in
question.

In this case the death of those disciples who would see this event was not
in question.  They would die.  They would not certainly die, however, until
after they saw the Lord coming in His kingdom.  They would definitely see
the Lord coming in His kingdom, but the time of that event was in question
(thus the 2nd subjunctive).  The first subjunctive, as I see it, is
questioning the time of their death after the certain event of seeing the
Lord come in His kingdom.  That is, they would die after that, but when
after that only God knew.  Otherwise, it might be inferred that the first
event having taken place the second would immediately follow right upon its
heels rather than living on for many years after that before they died.

Looking for His soon return,
Byron Knutson







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