[B-Greek] Did the shepherds believe? Luke 2:15

Jay Adkins jayadkins264 at gmail.com
Tue Dec 22 06:51:44 EST 2009


Dear BGreek,

Luke 2:15b DIELQWMEN DH EWS BHQLEEM KAI IDWMEN TO RHMA TOUTO YEYOVOS O hO
KURIOS EGNWRISEN HMIN

“Let us go now to Bethlehem that we might see [if] this saying has happened
which the Lord has made known to us.”

“Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the
Lord has made known to us.”

When I first translated I thought to add the “[if]” into the words of the
shepherds.  I did this due to the subjunctive of both verbs.  Since,
however, I found no support from other translations, I removed it.  And then
I change the term ‘saying’ to ‘thing’ and also removed ‘that we might’
replacing it with ‘and’ so as to make a smoother English phrase and to agree
with the other translations.  Now I understand that the subjunctive can be
used for an imperative instead of potential action.  My question is what key
in the context is there here that I missed?  How do we know for sure that
the shepherds believed the word of the angels or were in some doubt and
needed proof?  Secondly, in a construct such as this one, can one
subjunctive be used as an imperative and the other as a more normal
subjunctive?  I had no problem understanding from the context the first verb
was to be used as an imperative.  Should that have been enough to understand
the second verb was also being used as an imperative?

Once again let me thank all those who might respond and those responsible
for this web site.  It is such a blessing to be able to ask and learn from
others.

Merry Christmas to all.

Sola Gratia
jay adkins



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