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Monday, August 3, 2009

John 1:41

εὑρίσκει οὗτος πρῶτος τὸν ἀδελφὸν τὸν ἴδιον Σίμωνα καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ· εὑρήκαμεν τὸν Μεσσίαν, ὅ ἐστιν μεθερμηνευόμενον Χριστός.
He finds this one first the brother the his own Simon and he says to him,"We have found the Messiah," which is being interpreted, "Christ."

εὑρίσκει verb present active indicative 3rd singular from εὑρίσκω (I find) "he finds"

οὗτος near demonstrative pronoun nominative masculine singular "this one/he"

πρῶτος adjective nominative masculine singular "first"

τὸν definite article accusative masculine singular "the"

ἀδελφὸν noun accusative masculine singular "brother"

τὸν definite article accusative masculine singular "the"

ἴδιον adjective accusative masculine singular "his own"

Σίμωνα proper noun "Simon"

καὶ conjunction "and"

λέγει verb present active indicative 3rd singular from λέγω (I say) "he says"

αὐτῷ pronoun dative masculine singular "to him"

εὑρήκαμεν verb perfect active indicative 1st plural from εὑρίσκω (I find) "we have found"

τὸν definite article accusative masculine singular "the"

Μεσσίαν proper noun "Messiah"

relative pronoun "which"

ἐστιν verb present indicative 3rd singular from εἰμί (I am) "it is"

μεθερμηνευόμενον present active participle accusative masculine singular from μεθερμηνεύω (I interpret) "being interpreted"

Χριστός proper noun nominative masculine singular "Christ"

Rough Word-by-word:
he finds this one/he first the brother the his own Simon and he says to him we have found the Messiah which is being interpreted Christ

Smooth Translation:
He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah," which is translated, "Christ."

Notes:
Interesting that John doesn't just use a genitive to talk about Andrew's brother, Simon. He uses a specific adjective which means "his own." Maybe this is just normal, but it made me think about the impact Christ has on our families. Simon is the "first" one that Andrew tells, also.

2 comments:

Linda Davison said...

Could the adjective be for emphasis? Also, "being interpreted" impressed me as an editorial statement by John. Is that how everyone else took it?

marty said...

Linda,
I agree on both points but don't want to over press the idea of emphasis.I guess I'm not confident that I have read enough to know what might be an unusual construction, or as you say, "emphatic."

Also, I think John is considering that his readers may not be familiar with the Hebrew Messiah. For that reason he adds the explanatory interpretation.

Good thoughts. Thanks.