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Thursday, February 18, 2010

John 4:39

Ἐκ δὲ τῆς πόλεως ἐκείνης πολλοὶ ἐπίστευσαν εἰς αὐτὸν τῶν Σαμαριτῶν διὰ τὸν λόγον τῆς γυναικὸς μαρτυρούσης ὅτι εἶπέν μοι πάντα ἃ ἐποίησα.

Rough Word-by-word:
from and the city that many believed into him the Samaritans because of the word of the woman as she witnessed that he said to me all [things] which I did.

Smooth Translation:
And many of the Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the word of the woman as she witnessed, "He said to me everything I did."

Notes:
The string of genitives are what I believe is called a "genitive absolute," and function as a whole kind of like a nominative here.

The "word of the woman" is an interesting phrase. I wonder why John didn't just say "because of the woman's testimony." Is he conveying that it was actually the "living word" which was being brought by the Samaritan woman to the city? I don't want to make too big a deal of this, but I can't help wondering...

Ἐκ genitive preposition "from/out of"

δὲ post positive conjunction "and/but"

τῆς definite article genitive singular feminine "the"

πόλεως noun genitive singular feminine "city"

ἐκείνης demonstrative pronoun genitive singular feminine "that"

πολλοὶ adjective nominative plural masculine "many"

ἐπίστευσαν verb aorist active indicative 3rd plural from πιστεύω (I believe) "they believed"

εἰς accusative preposition "into/unto"

αὐτὸν pronoun accusative singular masculine "him"

τῶν definite article genitive plural masculine "the"

Σαμαριτῶν proper noun genitive plural masculine "Samaritans"

διὰ preposition with accusative "because of"

τὸν definite article accusative singular masculine "the"

λόγον noun accusative singular masculine "word"

τῆς definite article genitive singular feminine "the"

γυναικὸς noun genitive singular feminine "woman"

μαρτυρούσης present active participle genitive singular feminine from μαρτυρέω (I witness/I testify) "as she witnessed" (predicate position translated with temporal clause at the same time as the main verb)

ὅτι conjunction "that"

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

μοι pronoun dative 1st singular "to me"

πάντα adjective accusative plural neuter "all [things]"

relative pronoun accusative plural neuter "which"

ἐποίησα verb aorist active indicative 1st singular from ποιέω (I do) "I did"

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