[B-Greek] RE: Recognizing Subjectives

Hahn, Joshua R. jrhahn at sterlingcreek.net
Mon May 9 10:07:52 EDT 2005


I am translating 1 John 1:9 and have two quick questions.  First of all,
I am having trouble simply recognizing Subjunctive moods.  What clues
should I see that will immediately tell me that I am dealing with a word
in a Subjunctive mood?  Are certain words always Subjunctive?  I know
that this is a mood of contingency or probability but am simply having
trouble correctly spotting them as I translate.

The second question deals with this verse itself.  It seems as if John
is using a present tense OMOLOGWMEN to indicate that our confession of
sins is to be a continual process, thus the present tense and that the
APHE and KATHARISE are both subjunctive, meaning that these two are
given to us and are contingent upon the continual process of confessing.
It makes sense but I want to make sure that I am understanding John's
thought process for why he is using the Subjunctive mood here.

So, to recap, my two main questions are:

1) How to recognize Subjunctives in a verse?
2) When translating, how to properly understand why it was used?

Any help in understanding this mood would be appreciated.


Josh



Joshua R. Hahn
www.jhahn.com



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