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Monday, December 20, 2010

John 6:53

εἶπεν οὖν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ φάγητε τὴν σάρκα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πίητε αὐτοῦ τὸ αἷμα, οὐκ ἔχετε ζωὴν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς.

Rough Word-by-word:
he said therefore to them the Jesus, "Amen Amen I say to you, if not you all might eat the flesh the of son the of men and you all might drink of him the blood, not you all have life in yourselves.

Smooth Translation:
Therefore Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the son of man and you do not drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.

Notes:
I'm tempted to keep the wooden literal subjunctive "possibility" using might not eat and might not drink...Is Jesus saying, "Since you don't have life in yourselves, the crucifixion has to happen in order for you to have the possibility of life?" Perhaps this is best left to homiletic exegesis.

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

οὖν post positive conjunction "therefore"

αὐτοῖς pronoun dative plural masculine "to them"

definite article nominative singular masculine "the"

Ἰησοῦς proper noun nominative singular masculine "Jesus"

ἀμὴν adverb "amen, certainly"

ἀμὴν adverb "amen, certainly"

λέγω verb present active indicative 1st singular from λέγω (I say) "I say"

ὑμῖν pronoun dative 2nd plural "to you all"

ἐὰν conditional particle "if"

μὴ adverb of negation "not"

φάγητε verb aorist active subjunctive 2nd plural from ἐσθίω (I eat) "you all might eat"

τὴν definite article accusative singular feminine "the"

σάρκα noun accusative singular feminine "flesh"

τοῦ definite article genitive singular masculine "the"

υἱοῦ noun genitive singular masculine "[of] son"

τοῦ definite article genitive singular masculine "the"

ἀνθρώπου noun genitive singular masculine "[of] man"

καὶ conjunction "and"

πίητε verb aorist active subjunctive 2nd plural from πίνω (I drink) "you all might drink"

αὐτοῦ pronoun genitive singular masculine "of him"

τὸ definite article accusative singular neuter "the"

αἷμα noun accusative singular neuter "blood"

οὐκ adverb of negation "not"

ἔχετε verb present active indicative 2nd plural from ἔχω (I have) "you all have"

ζωὴν noun accusative singular feminine "life"

ἐν dative preposition "in"

ἑαυτοῖς reflexive pronoun "yourselves"

2 comments:

Katie said...

I think it would be more accurate with keeping the subjunctive mood in the English translation. After all, just because a person goes through the motions of eating the flesh and drinking the blood, it does not guarantee salvation. Having faith is necessary to obtain life in Jesus.

marty said...

Yes.
What exactly does it mean to eat Christ's flesh and drink his blood?