λέγει ἡ μήτηρ αὐτοῦ τοῖς διακόνοις· ὅ τι ἂν λέγῃ ὑμῖν, ποιήσατε.
Rough Word-by-word:
she says the mother of him to the table servants, "Whatever that might he might say to you, you do."
Smooth Translation:
His mother said to the table servants, "Whatever he might say to you, you do."
λέγει verb present active indicative 3rd singular from λέγω (I say) "she says"
ἡ definite article nominative feminine singular "the"
μήτηρ noun nominative feminine singular "mother"
αὐτοῦ pronoun genitive masculine singular "of him"
τοῖς definite article dative masculine singular "to the"
διακόνοις noun dative masculine singular "table servants"
ὅ relative pronoun accusative neuter "which/whatever"
τι relative pronoun accusative neuter "that/what"
ἂν conditional particle "might"
λέγῃ verb present active subjunctive 3rd singular from λέγω (I say) "he might say"
ὑμῖν pronoun dative 2nd plural "to you"
ποιήσατε verb aorist active imperative 2nd plural from ποιέω (I do) "you do"
2 comments:
Can you please explain to me why ποιήσατε (aorist tense) is "you do" and not "did"? Thanks!
John,
Good question!
While it is true that in the indicative mood the Aorist is often translated as a simple past, in other moods or modes this may not be the case.
The term "Aorist" comes from the alpha privative attached to the Greek verb ὁρίζω (horizō) which means "I define" or "I mark out." This is where we get the English word "Horizon," the defining of the edge of our vision. So "Aorist" is really an "undefined" tense.
Here in John 2:5 Jesus' mother is giving a command to the men to do what Jesus tells them to do. The form of the verb ποιήσατε is an aorist imperative 2nd plural. So the reason it is translated as "you do" is because it is an aorist imperative, not an aorist indicative.
I hope this helps.
in grace,
--- marty ---
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