[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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