[B-Greek] A question from a Greek newbie
Kevin W. Woodruff
cierpke at prodigy.net
Tue Apr 4 14:20:54 EDT 2006
Sean:
Either interpretation might be possible. It depends on
whether you take the future tense of "keep" as a
predictive future or an imperatival future.
If you love me, then as a consequence in the future
you will keep my commandments
or
If you love me, then you must keep my comandments
Kevin
--- Sean Kelly <seank at microsoft.com> wrote:
> I'm still working on my case endings for nouns and
> haven't even got to verbs yet and so I am whoafully
> inadequately prepared to answer this question on my
> own. I'm hoping one of you out there could help me.
>
> John 14:15 states "If you love Me, you will keep My
> commandments."
>
> The Greek looks like this. (Please excuse me, I
> don't know how to do the capital letter Greek)
>
> ᾿ÎαÌν αÌγαÏαÍÏÎµÌ Î¼Îµ, ÏαÌÏ
> εÌνÏολαÌÏ ÏαÌÏ ÎµÌμαÌÏ
> ÏηÏηÌÏαÏεÎ
>
> I've always understood this verse to mean, "If you
> love Me, you will prove it by keeping my
> commandments." Someone recently commented that there
> is a different understanding something like, "If you
> focus on loving Me, keeping my commandments will
> happen automatically." They also stated that the
> Greek bears this understanding out.
>
> Could anyone shed some light on this?
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Sean Kelly
> Husband, Father, Programmer
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>
Prof. Kevin W. Woodruff, M.Div., M.S.I.S.
Library Director/Reference Librarian, Professor of Bible and Greek
Tennessee Temple University/Temple Baptist Seminary, 1815 Union Ave.
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404, United States of America
423/493-4252 (office) 423/698-9447 (home) 423/493-4497 (FAX)
Cierpke at prodigy.net http://pages.prodigy.net/cierpke/woodruff.htm
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