[B-Greek] JOHN 21:10 ... hWN EPIASATE NUN

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Tue Mar 17 00:24:02 EDT 2009


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Elizabeth Kline" <kline_dekooning at earthlink.net>
To: "greek B-Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 17. marts 2009 01:50
Subject: [B-Greek] JOHN 21:10 ... hWN EPIASATE NUN


>
> JOHN 21:10 LEGEI AUTOIS hO IHSOUS: ENEGKATE APO TWN OYARIWN hWN
> EPIASATE NUN.
>
> What is the pragmatic function of  hWN EPIASATE NUN?

The position of NUN at the end caught my attention.
As I looked at the 29 instances of NUN in John, I noticed that only twice does NUN occur after the 
verb. When it precedes the verb, there seems to be a clear contrast between "now" and another time. 
The only other place where NUN occurs after the verb is with an imperative in 2:8:

ANTLHSATE NUN KAI FERETE (draw now and bring)

Here the NUN does not so much contrast with another time as it strengthens the imperative, something 
like "do it right away".

Because of this parallel, I prefer to take NUN in 21:10 with ENEGKATE - bring now some of the fish 
you have caught.
If the NUN was to mean the fish you have just now caught, I would have expected:
ENEGKATE APO TWN OYARIWN hWN NUN EPIASATE.

Maybe I am putting too much weight on word order? I don't see English translations following my 
suggestion, although several leave out the NUN altogether. I don't get support in BAGD, but I think 
they tend to ignore the function of word order. All the examples listed of NUN as an immediately 
preceding time has the NUN before the verb. Whereas NUN can often follow an imperative and sometimes 
a participle, it is rare that it follows an aorist indicative. The only instance I found was in 1 
Pet 2:25:
ALLA EPESTRAFHTE NUN  (but you have RETURNED now).
Here there is a strong contrast between having gone astray in the previous clause and having 
returned, and this explains why the verb is here more prominent than NUN.

Iver Larsen 




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