[B-Greek] John 13:24 EIH

Jerker Karlsson jerker.karlsson at kdu.se
Wed Apr 9 03:38:27 EDT 2003


<bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca> writes:
> John 13:24 NEUEI OUN TOUTWi SIMWN PETROS PUQESQAI TIS AN EIH PERI hOU
>LEGEI.  Can someone translate this for me? The part that I am having
>trouble with is EIH. I found this to be 3rd. sg present active optative
>of EIMI. I just don`t know how to make sense of this in this passage.
>Thank you.
>Bert de Haan

Verbatim: Nods thus at him Simon Peter to inquire who "it might be (AN
EIH)" about whom he speaks.
And in English proper: Simon Peter thus nods to him to make an inquiry
about whom Jesus might be talking.

>NEUEI 
Verb "to nod"
>OUN
particle with vague meaning. Denoting some sort of logical progression

> TOUTWi 
Dative Object of direction "Nod at someone NEUW TINI" 

>SIMWN PETROS
Subject, ie Simon is the one noding at TOUTWI 

> PUQESQAI 

 Infinitive of reason or motive often preceded by TOU. (Nod at someone to
make him do someting) Here begins a final clause.  


>TIS

Interrogative particle "who, whom"

> AN EIH 

"Potential optative" render by trying to add English modifiers such as
"may, might, can" to the verb. AN is untranslatable and mostly functions
as a signal that what is said isn't a plane description but something more
abstract.

>PERI hOU 

Prepositional phrase with rel. pron. OS in gen. refering to the person
about whom Jesus 
>LEGEI.

/Jerker Karlsson
Lund, Sweden




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