[B-Greek] It will be done

Elizabeth Kline kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Thu May 20 17:22:31 EDT 2010



On May 20, 2010, at 11:45 AM, Steve Miller wrote:

> I'm very new at Greek, and I've been wrestling with GENHQHTW for a few 
> days now. BDAG lists this as an imperative of GINOMAI. Fair enough. But 
> the imperative doesn't really come across in any of the English 
> translations I've looked at. I would have expected something more like 
> "You believe, so be healed." Searching more, BDAG has an entry that 
> specifically addresses this verse (bottom of p.197, under sense 4): "w. 
> adv. or adv. phrase added.../according to your faith let it be done to 
> you/, i.e. /you believe, and you won't be disappointed./ The phrase 
> "won't be disappointed" was completely unexpected. Can anyone shed some 
> light on this?


Matt. 9:29 τότε ἥψατο τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτῶν λέγων· κατὰ τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν γενηθήτω ὑμῖν. 

Matt. 9:29 TOTE hHYATO TWN OFQALMWN AUTWN LEGWN· KATA THN PISTIN hUMWN GENHQHTW hUMIN. 

The third person imperative would have been more intelligible to native English speakers in past centuries when the language was still under the pervasive influence of the standard English bible. We don't talk that way today. 

I am not sure about this but it seems like the third person imperative here is functioning as a performative. In other words, by speaking the words Jesus is healing the man. The narrative implies that Jesus has the authority to speak the words and affect a healing. I don't think the touching here is anything more than symbolic. 


Elizabeth Kline
 






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