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Friday, September 18, 2009

John 2:20

εἶπαν οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι· τεσσεράκοντα καὶ ἓξ ἔτεσιν οἰκοδομήθη ὁ ναὸς οὗτος, καὶ σὺ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερεῖς αὐτόν;

Rough Word-by-word:
They said therefore the Jews, "Forty and six years it was being built the temple this, and you in three days will raise up it?"

Smooth Translation:
Therefore the Jews said, "This temple was being built Forty six years, and you will raise it up in three days?"

εἶπαν verb aorist active indicative 3rd plural from λέγω (I say) "they said"

οὖν conjunction "therefore"

οἱ definite article nominative masculine plural "the"

Ἰουδαῖοι adjective nominative masculine plural "Jews"

τεσσεράκοντα numeral "forty"

καὶ conjunction "and"

ἓξ numeral "six"

ἔτεσιν noun dative neuter plural "years"

οἰκοδομήθη aorist passive indicative 3rd singular from οἰκοδομέω (I build) "he was being built"

definite article nominative masculine singular "the"

ναὸς noun nominative masculine singular "temple"

οὗτος demonstrative pronoun nominative masculine singular "this"

καὶ conjunction "and"

σὺ pronoun 2nd singular "you"

ἐν dative preposition "in"

τρισὶν adjective dative feminine plural "three"

ἡμέραις noun dative feminine plural "days"

ἐγερεῖς verb future active indicative 2nd singular from ἐγείρω (I raise up) "you will raise up"

αὐτόν pronoun accusative masculine singular "him"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does the word "was being built" (oikodomethe) in John 2:20, which is in the aorist indicative passive form, signal a continous action or just punctual burst of building activity over time?
Thanks in advance. :-)

marty said...

Adrian,
Aorist literally means "not defined" so I think we can over press our interpretation sometimes when we insist that "aorist is always punctual." Having said that, I take it as a building process that took place for the 46 years. It is more the context of the 46 years that influences my view here rather than the tense. I do take the aorist to indicate simple action, but a simple action that takes place over 46 years to me is somewhat continuous.

The commentators I've looked at seem to consider the aorist here as "summing up" the the building process into one simple statement of the 46 years.

Rogers and Rogers call it a "Complexive aor."

R.C.H. Lenski says,"The temporal dative 'forty and six years' views the entire time as a unit, which correspponds with the constative aorist 'was built,' the entire extended work being summarized as one past act,..."

Additionally, I would not consider myself an authority, so take my view as one of a student and let me know if you get further light by asking others more learned than I am.

Thanks for your comment and good question.
--- marty ---