[B-Greek] Third-person commands
Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Tue Nov 15 02:21:04 EST 2005
Concerning what Don was asking recently about third person commands,
an interesting case arises in John 9:21 and its transformation in
9:23. The question Don raised seemed to be, can a third person
command be intended to understood as a command for a second person?
(i.e. When Paul "commands" the unbeliever to "depart" is this
intended to mean for the believers "not to stand in the way." The
short answer to this question is ofcourse, it happens all the time
and John 9:23 is an example of something very much like it. In 9:21
the future indicative 3rd singular stands for the third person
command. However, in 9:23 the author rephrases what the speakers had
said as a second person command.
Thus
.
HLIKIAN ECEI, AUTOS PERI hEAUTOU LALHSAI
becomes
HLIKIAN ECEI, AUTON EPERWSATE
Note that the author reports the second statement as a functional
equivalent of the first,
DIA TOUTO hOI GONEIS AUTOU EIPAN hOTI ...
Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Brite Divinity School
Texas Christian University
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