[B-Greek] RE: James 1:4 and imperatives

Alexander Hopkins alexali at surf.net.au
Wed Dec 31 02:06:07 EST 2003


John Colby asked about third person imperative in James 1:4,

>hH DE hUPOMONH ERGON TELEION ECETW

writing,

>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.

If John's concern is with the meaning, and then the translation of the
third person imperative, perhaps particularly with the use of 'let' in
its translation, he might find our own online resources worth looking
at.  There is a thread on "Translating Imperatives" commenced by Mark
Taylor on Aug 20, 1999 which addresses these matters.  Mark's opening
shot is to be found at
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/html4/1999-08/32457.html;
the last I located in a quick check of the thread was Carlton Winbery's
post at
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/html4/1999-08/32472.html.

Alex Hopkins
Melbourne, Australia




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