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Thursday, January 10, 2008

To be or not to be

An interesting observation came up in a greek reading group yesterday. We were reading in the sermon on the mount at Matthew 5:48. Here is the Greek text:

σεσθε ον μες τλειοι ς πατρ μν ορνιος τλεις στιν.

The question is concerning σεσθε which is a future middle indicative 2nd plural from εἰμί.
Many translations treat this as a command or imperative with, "Be ye, therefore, perfect...,"
but should it rather be treated more as a result? "Ye, therefore, will be perfect..." or even "You, then, will be perfect..."

Are there any syntactical or grammatical reasons for treating this future middle as an imperative?
Commentaries I've looked at so far seem to assume one treatment or the other without dealing with the grammatical question.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

John 1:12

σοι δ λαβον ατν, δωκεν ατος ξουσαν τκνα θεο γενσθαι, τος πιστεουσιν ες τὸ ὄνομα ατο,


σοι relative pronoun "as many as"

δ post positive conjunction "and" or "but"

λαβον verb aorist active indicative 3rd plural from λαμβάνω "received"

ατν personal pronoun accusative masculine singular "him"

δωκεν verb aorist active indicative 3rd singular from δίδωμι "he gave"

ατος pronoun dative plural "to them"

ξουσαν noun accusative feminine singular "authority"

τκνα noun nominative neuter plural "children"

θεο noun genitive masculine singular "of God"

γενσθαι verb aorist middle infinitive from γίνομαι "to become"

τος defininte article dative masculine plural "the"

πιστεουσιν verb present active participle dative masculine plural (note the attributive position of this participle. It is describing the "them" of ατος.)

ες prepostion with accusative case "in" or "into"

τ definite article accusative neuter singular "the"

νομα noun accusative neuter singular "name"

ατο personal pronoun genitive masculine singular "of him"


Rough Translation:

as many as but received him he gave to them authority children of God to become the believing in the name of him

Smooth Translation:

But as many as received him, to them he gave authority to become children of God, the ones believing in his name.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

John 1:11

ες τ δια λθεν, κα ο διοι ατν ο παρλαβον.


ες preposition accusative "into"

τ definite article nominative neuter plural "the"

δια noun nominative neuter plural "one's own things"

λθεν verb aorist indicative 3rd singular from ἔρχομαι "he came"

κα conjunction "and"

ο definite article nominative masculine plural "the"

διοι noun nominative masculine plural "his own (people)"

ατν pronoun accusative masculine singular "him, himself"

ο negative particle "not"

παρλαβον verb aorist active indicative 3rd plural from παραλαμβάνω "they received"

Rough Translation:

into the one's own things he came and the his own himself not they received

Smooth Translation:

He came to his own things and his own people did not receive him

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

John 1:10

ν τ κσμ ν, κα κσμος δι' ατο γνετο, κα κσμος ατν οκ γνω.


ν preposition dative "in"

τ definite article dative masculine singular "the"

κσμnoun dative masculine singular "world"

ν verb imperfect indicative 3rd singular from εἰμί "(he) was"

κα conjunction "and"

defininte article nominative masculine singular "the"

κσμος noun nominative masculine singular "world"

δι' elided preposition with genitive "through"

ατο personal pronoun genitive masculine singular "him"

γνετο verb aorist middle indicative 3rd singular from γίνομαι "came to be"

κα correlating conjunction "but"

definite article nominative masculine singular "the"

κσμος noun nominative masculine singular "world"

ατν personal pronoun accusative masculine singular "him"

οκ negative particle "not"

γνω verb aorist active indicative 3rd singular from γινώσκω "he (or "it" - the world) knew"


Rough Translation:

in the world he was and the world through him came to be and the world him not it knew


Smooth Transaltion:

He was in the world and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him.