[B-Greek] LABETE in John 20:22
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jan 23 22:19:00 EST 2007
On Jan 23, 2007, at 9:01 PM, Bert de Haan wrote:
>
>
>
> John 20:22 reads:
> KAI TOUTO EIPWN ENEFUSHSEN KAI LEGEI AUTOIS, LABETE PNEUMA hAION.
>
>
> I am trying to understand the force of the imperative LABETE.
> Jesus breathing on them I would think is a sign of them receiving
> the Holy Spirit yet he commands them to receive the Holy Spirit.
> Is the imperative “LABETE” much more than a pronouncement?
> Wallace in GGBB on page 492 has a section on pronouncement
> imperatives.
> He says:
> “Occasionally an imperative in the passive voice is the equivalent
> of a statement that is fulfilled at the moment of speaking. Such
> usage is reserved for passives that cannot be fulfilled by the
> recipient of the imperative. On the surface, it looks like a
> command, but its nature is such that it cannot be obeyed by the
> recipient and yet it comes true at the moment it is uttered.”
> An example he gives is KAQARISQHTI in Mark 1:41. “Be cleansed.”
>
> The way I understand verse 22, all this seems to fit except the
> passive voice of the verb.
> LAMBANW in the passive voice does not make sense here but “receive”
> can have a bit of a passive sense compared to the active “take.”
> Is it safe to say that this is a pronouncement?
NO: LABETE is 2 pl. aorist ACTIVE imperative (the passive, if there
were one, would be LH(M)FQHTI -- but in fact, there is not a single
passive form of the uncompounded LAMBANW in the GNT.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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