[B-Greek] Indicative or Hortatory Subjunctive?

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Sat Aug 23 01:47:31 EDT 2008


On Aug 22, 2008, at 9:08 PM, Michael Lawson wrote:

> Hello List,
>
> I have a question about an exercise in J. Gresham Machen's "New  
> Testament Greek for Beginners" concerning contract verbs. The  
> example exercise is as follows:
>
> ἀγαπῶμεν τὸν θεὸν ἐν ταῖς  
> καρδίαις ἡμῶν ἀγαπῶντες καὶ τοὺς  
> ἀδελφούς.
>
> AGAPW~MEN TON QEON EN TAIS KARDIAIS HMWN AGAPWNTES KAI TOUS ADELFOUS.
>
> In the study guide for Machen, David Thompson asks, "Is AGAPW~MEN  
> indicative or subjunctive?" My Answer: It can be both since the  
> vowels for each case contract to omega with a circumflex accent. He  
> further asks, "How would you settle the question here (whether the  
> verb is indicative or subjunctive)?" My question: How does Thompson  
> come to conclude that this verb is a hortatory subjunctive only? Is  
> not an alternative translation using the present indicative for the  
> verb worth mentioning?
>
> "Thompson's translation is: "Let us love (in continuing sense) God  
> with/in our hearts, while loving (while we love) the brethren also."
>
> My Translation: "We love God in our hearts as we love the brethren  
> also."
>
> Am I missing something? Thanks for your replies in advance.
>
> Michael Lawson


Can't help you with Machen or Thompson. The form in question is found  
10 times in the Epistles of John. Just to see how big a problem it  
would be to identify a hortatory subjunctive I printed the nine verses  
on one page and marked them indicative, subjunctive and hortatory  
subjunctive. Then I checked my results against Martin Culy's hand book  
and I am pleased to report that Culy didn't make any errors :-) I will  
not spoil your fun by giving the answers in advance. The passages are:

1John 3:11 1John 3:14 1John 3:18
1John 3:23 1John 4:7 1John 4:12
1John 4:19 1John 5:2 2John 5


Elizabeth Kline







More information about the B-Greek mailing list