Jn. 20:22

joe buckley buckleyjoe at hotmail.com
Thu Oct 14 13:29:59 EDT 1999


     Concerning LABETE:  Much difficulty has been occasioned concerning the 
Greek imperative because of the connotation carried by the imperative in 
English.
     The varied uses of the Gr. imper. have been classified in ATR as: (1) 
command or exhortation, (2) prohibition, (3) entreaty,
(4) permission, (5) concern or condition, (6) in asyndeton, (7) in 
subordinate clauses, (8) in indirect discourses (pp. 246-50).
     In the imperative mood there is no distinction of time. (Though, of 
course, all imperatives have, of necessity, a future idea in them.)
The aorist imper. refers to the action while saying nothing about its 
duration or repetition.  The aor. imper. is quite common in the NT.
     While the aor. imper. usually (probably) refers to an action which is 
to be commenced this cannot always be pressed (cf. the "Lord's Prayer" -- 
contains aor. imper. but it would be strange to translate them by "start to 
give us our daily bread," etc.)  And, as Stagg pointed out a number of years 
ago, the aor. imper. does not imply necessarily a single action (cf. Mt. 
5:42; Lk. 10:35; 11:41; 19:13; 1 Jn. 5:21).
     LAMBANW implies that the recipient may welcome or request the gift, he 
is not merely a passive vessel (cf. in Jn. 1:12; 3:11; 5:43; 6:21; 7:23; 
10:18; 12:48; 13:20,30).
     The aor. imper, LABETE, is used in Mt. 26:26; Mk. 14:22; Lk. 22:17 in 
the account of the institution of the Lord's Supper.  Obviously the aor. 
imper. could not indicate an action not to be repeated.
     So  --- a conclusion cannot be drawn by looking at LABETE alone (and 
when this "receiving" took place is not indicated by this word alone).  The 
grammar of the verse as a whole needs to be considered; individual words 
need to be considered (esp. the anarthrous accusative PNEUMA hAGION)>
     A contextual analysis of the verse would prove very helpful.

                      Joe B.  THD 2b

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