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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

John 4:51

ἤδη δὲ αὐτοῦ καταβαίνοντος οἱ δοῦλοι ὑπήντησαν αὐτῷ καὶ ἤγγειλαν ὅτι ὁ παῖς αὐτοῦ ζῇ.

Rough Word-by-word:
already and of him as he was going down the servants they came to meet to him and they announced that the child of him he is living.

Smooth Translation:
And already as he was going down his servants came to meet him and announced to him that his child "is alive."

Notes:
I want to put an exclamation point at the end of the quote. The servants have come to meet the official for a purpose; to give him a message - to announce to him, "He is alive!"

The wording is interesting to me. Should the ὅτι be translated or is it just an indicator of the quote. Maybe the ὅτι should be translated "because," indicating the reason the servants came.

It is hard to convey in "good English" because of the movement from aorist to present tense.

ἤδη adverb "already/even now"

δὲ post positive conjunction "and/but"

αὐτοῦ pronoun genitive singular masculine "of him"

καταβαίνοντος present active participle genitive singular masculine from καταβαίνω (I come down/I go down) "when he was going down/as he was going down" (note: predicate position - temporal clause at same time as main verb which is aorist.)

οἱ definite article nominative plural masculine "the"

δοῦλοι substantive adjective nominative plural masculine "servants"

ὑπήντησαν verb aorist active indicative 3rd plural from ὑπαντάω (I go to meet) "they came to meet"

αὐτῷ pronoun dative singular masculine "to him"

καὶ conjunction "and"

ἤγγειλαν verb aorist active indicative 3rd plural from ἀγγέλλω (I announce) "they announced"

ὅτι conjunction "that/because"

definite article nominative singular masculine "the"

παῖς noun accusative singular masculine "child"

αὐτοῦ pronoun genitive singular masculine "of him"

ζῇ verb present active indicative 3rd singular from ζάω (I live) "he is living"

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