καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῇ ἐκεῖνοι γύναι τί κλαίεις (John 19:13)

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Title:  And They Said to Her, “Woman, Why Do You Weep?”

The text is, “καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῇ ἐκεῖνοι γύναι τί κλαίεις λέγει αὐτοῖς ὅτι ἦραν τὸν κύριόν μου καὶ οὐκ οἶδα ποῦ ἔθηκαν αὐτόν”.

καὶ -> coordinating additive conjunction -> and

λέγουσιν -> third person, plural, present, active, indicative verb -> say CER* said

αὐτῇ -> third person, personal, feminine, singular, dative pronoun -> to her

ἐκεῖνοι -> masculine, plural, nominative, demonstrative pronoun -> they

γύναι -> feminine, singular, vocative noun -> woman

τί -> neuter, singular, accusative, interrogative pronoun -> why

κλαίεις -> second person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> you do weep

λέγει -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> she says CER she said

αὐτοῖς -> third person, personal, plural, dative pronoun -> to them

ὅτι -> subordinating conjunction -> because

ἦραν -> third person, plural, aorist, active, indicative verb -> they took away

τὸν -> masculine, singular, accusative article -> the NRIEH**

κύριόν -> masculine, singular, accusative noun -> Lord

μου -> first person, personal, singular, genitive pronoun -> my

καὶ -> coordinating additive conjunction -> and

οὐκ -> negative particle -> not

οἶδα -> first person, singular, perfect, active, indicative verb -> I do know

ποῦ -> interrogative particle -> where

ἔθηκαν -> third person, plural, aorist, active, indicative verb -> they have laid

αὐτόν -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, accusative pronoun -> him

The meaning of this verse is,

And they said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?”  She said to them, “Because they took away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”

*CER:  indicates a non-literal, but good translation.  In the first example here, the verb “λέγουσιν” is present tense, which in the indicative mood often can be rendered in the aorist tense, since it expresses linear action not in the present but at some point in the past.  The designation CER is equivalent to “Contextual English Rendering”.

**NRIEH: For the sake of clarity the word is translated into English, but to avoid such odd constructions as applying a definite article (“the”) to a substantive sufficiently determined by its being a proper noun, or by the use of a qualifier other than the definite article. An example would be the basic translation “Peter said to the Jesus”; the word “the” is completely unnecessary. There are many examples of this in the New Testament. The designation NRIEH is equivalent to “Not Rendered Into English Here”.

καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῇ ἐκεῖνοι γύναι τί κλαίεις (John 19:13) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.