[B-Greek] James 1:4 and imperatives

Polycarp66 at aol.com Polycarp66 at aol.com
Tue Dec 30 19:59:43 EST 2003


In a message dated 12/30/2003 6:24:21 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
colby at solutions2000.net writes:
Thank you for your help with James 1:3. I find James to have different Greek 
than I am used to. The first part of James 1:4 reads:

hH DE hUPOMONH ERGON TELEION ECETW 

My question concerns the imperative. I would translate this, "Now *let* 
endurance *have* perfect work" or "Now endurance *must have* perfect work. The 
typical translation of a present imperative third person singular verb is like 
this (how I have learned): ECETW- let he/she/it have. This is confusing to me, 
because it sounds like: *you* let he/she/it have. But this is a active and third 
person. My first translation sounds like you are allowing endurance have 
perfect work. Is this right? Or is the sense more like my second translation, 
giving an statement that endurance must have perfect work? I am not as concerned 
about this verse as I am understanding the third person imperative (active and 
also mp, middle, and passive). I would be glad if someone would help me 
understand this and/or point me to some online resources.
______

"Let X <verb>" is one normal way to translate a 3rd person imperative, but 
you are correct that it can also be translated as "X must <verb>."  I think 
though that you might want to choose another term for ERGON.  "Work" just doesn't 
seem to quite fit here.  BAGD has " let endurance show itself perfectly in 
practice Js 1:4."  In regard to another text it says "perh. also the bringing of 
the law into effect "  Personally, I think "Let hUPOMONH have its full effect" 
wouldn't be bad or "hUPOMONH must have its full effect."  Some of the glosses 
for hUPOMONH are "endurance, patience, steadfastness" so you are in the 
proper area there.  I'm calling attention to the word here since I think that in 
Revelation it doesn't have that meaning but approaches the idea of "confession." 
 That, however, is the subject for another discussion.

gfsomsel



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