[B-Greek] John 4:34

Richard Lindeman oblchurch at msn.com
Fri Dec 22 15:49:56 EST 2006


George:

 

You are missing the point. I am not at all attempting to speculate a "new
interpretation" of scripture. You have correctly pointed out that  EMON is a
possessive pronoun which qualifies BRWMA. I accept that. But now I am simply
attempting to discover the full extent of my errors. Doing this helps me to
get a better grasp of the language. 

 

I incorrectly read EMON as if it were a personal pronoun in the accusative
case.  If it were EME rather than EMON, then it would read as follows:

 

LEGEI AUTOIS hO IHSOUS EME BRWMA ESTIN hINA POIHSW TO QELHMA TOU PEMYANTOS
ME KAI TELEIWSW AUTOU TO ERGON 

 

Would this be correct Greek usage? If so, then I would translate EME as the
subject of hINA + subjunctive and I would take BRWMA as the object of ESTIN.

"Jesus said to them, with respect to me it is bread to do the will of the
one who sent me and to complete his work." 

 

Of course this is not what the actual text in John says, but since I was
wrong in taking EMON as an accusative of general reference, were there other
mistakes I made in my thought process?  

 

Thanks!

 

Rich Lindeman 

 

  _____  

From: George F Somsel [mailto:gfsomsel at yahoo.com] 


Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 12:40 PM
To: Richard Lindeman; b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] John 4:34

 

Rich,

 

If you were to change EMON to ME or to EME, it would then indeed be the
accusative of a personal pronoun -- either emphatic or unemphatic.  It would
no longer be a possessive pronoun qualifying BRWMA.  The question then would
be regarding how this would functioin in the sentence.  Since the verb here
is a copulative, there would be no accusative unless it were as the object
of a preposition.  Do you see one here?  I prefer to not get involved in
speculating how something might have been said.  There are many ways in
which anything can be expressed, and we could sit here all day constructing
ways in which something might have been said.  The fact is that this is the
way in which it was expressed by our writer.  

 

A word of caution regarding translation (one's own).  We have many good
translations of the Biblical writings in English.  Generally they will
differ slightly in one way or another from other translations.  Sometimes
this simply depends upon the translation philosophy of the person or
committee making the translation.  Occassionally one will find a translation
which is motivated by a particular viewpoint which requires that one
recognize the fact and allow for it if that translation is used.  That
aside, most of the main translations are good.  Pick up your Greek NT and
look at that same passage in the English version that you keep underneath
it.  If your translation differs markely from that, you're probably on the
wrong track.  Great discoveries regarding the meaning of a text are few and
far between.  This does not mean that the study of the original language is
without value.  Sometimes one will note an ambiguity that doesn't translate
well or the usage of a particular word which may also be used in another
context.  There is much gold to be mined from the study of the original.
Beware, however, of thinking that you are going to completely overturn the
fundamental way in which it is understood.
 

george
gfsomsel
_________ 


----- Original Message ----
From: Richard Lindeman <oblchurch at msn.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 12:28:30 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] John 4:34


John 4:34 
LEGEI AUTOIS hO IHSOUS EMON BRWMA ESTIN hINA POIHSW TO QELHMA TOU PEMYANTOS
ME KAI TELEIWSW AUTOU TO ERGON 

"Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to
accomplish his work.'"

I noticed that EMON is found in accusative masculine singular here and
serves as the subject of hINA POIHSW and also as the subject of (hINA)
TELEIWSW  In this verse, is this an exact equivalent of an accusative
subject for an infinitive? In other words, if John had written aorist
infinitives here instead of hINA + aorist subjunctives, would that be good
Greek? And would that change the function of EMON in any way or the meaning
of the sentence? 

Blessed Christmas to all!

Rich Lindeman
---
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