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Tuesday, August 11, 2009

John 1:46

εἶπεν αὐτῷ Ναθαναήλ· ἐκ Ναζαρὲτ δύναταί τι ἀγαθὸν εἶναι; λέγει αὐτῷ Φίλιππος· ἔρχου καὶ ἴδε.

Rough Word-by-word:
he said to him Nathanael, "From Nazareth is able any good to be?" he says to him Philip, "You come and you see."

Smooth Translation:
Nathanael said to him, "Is any able from Nazareth to be good?" Philip says to him, "Come and see."

Notes:
I struggled with this translation. There are two infinitives, and the adjective ἀγαθὸν appears to be in the accusative, although two online sites I found parse it as nominative. I think the pronoun τι should be in the nominative and goes with the infinitive δύναταί, while ἀγαθὸν goes with the infinitive εἶναι. Notice that ἀγαθὸν is in the predicate position without the article. I really wanted to put the pronoun and the adjective together because they are positioned right next to each other and parse them both as accusative, but the missing definite article seems significant to me here. I would welcome any light or input...

Further Note:
I have spent some time looking at how others have parsed and translated this verse. I have yet to find anyone who considers ἀγαθὸν accusative. I also have failed to find anyone who comments on the predicate position of the adjective.
What this tells me, and should also tell anyone reading my translation, is that I am very likely wrong here.

εἶπεν verb aorist active indicative 3rd singular from λέγω (I say) "he said"

αὐτῷ pronoun dative masculine singular "to him"

Ναθαναήλ proper noun nominative masculine singular "Nathanael"

ἐκ genitive preposition "from/out of"

Ναζαρὲτ proper noun nominative feminine singular "Nazareth"

δύναταί verb present passive indicative 3rd singular from δύναμαι (I am able) "it is able"

τι pronoun accusative neuter singular "any/one"

ἀγαθὸν adjective accusative neuter singular "good"

εἶναι verb present infinitive 3rd singular from εἰμί (I am) "to be"

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

αὐτῷ pronoun dative masculine singular "to him"

Φίλιππος proper noun nominative masculine singular "Philip"

ἔρχου verb present active imperative 2nd singular from ἔρχομαι (I come) "you come"

καὶ conjunction "and"

ἴδε verb present active imperative 2nd singular from ὁράω (I see) "you see"

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