[B-Greek] Third-person commands

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Tue Nov 15 07:43:52 EST 2005


Dear Yancy,

>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 ...

HH: Not really. ERWTHSATE in verse 21 becomes EPERWTHSATE in verse 23.

					Yours,
					Harold Holmyard

>
>Yancy Smith
>Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
>Brite Divinity School
>Texas Christian University
>
>
>
>---
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