λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἐμὸν βρῶμά ἐστιν ἵνα ποιήσω τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός με (John 4:34)

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Title -> Jesus Said to Them, “My Food is That I Do the Will of the One Sending Me”

The text is, “λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἐμὸν βρῶμά ἐστιν ἵνα ποιήσω τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός με καὶ τελειώσω αὐτοῦ τὸ ἔργον”.

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

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

ὁ -> masculine, singular, nominative article -> the NRIEH**

Ἰησοῦς -> masculine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> Jesus

ἐμὸν -> masculine, singular, nominative, possessive adjective -> my

βρῶμά -> neuter, singular, nominative noun -> food

ἐστιν -> third person, singular, present, indicative verb -> is

ἵνα -> subordinating conjunction -> that

ποιήσω -> first person, singular, aorist, active, subjunctive verb -> I should do

τὸ -> neuter, singular, accusative article -> the

θέλημα -> neuter, singular, accusative noun -> will

τοῦ -> masculine, singular, genitive article -> of the

πέμψαντός -> aorist, active, participial, masculine, singular, genitive verb -> one sending

με -> first person, personal, singular, accusative pronoun -> me

καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and

τελειώσω -> first person, singular, aorist, active, subjunctive verb -> I should execute fully

αὐτοῦ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, genitive pronoun -> his

τὸ -> neuter, singular, accusative article -> the NRIEH

ἔργον -> neuter, singular, accusative noun -> work

The meaning of this verse is:

Jesus said to them, “My food is that I should do the will of the one sending me and I should execute his work fully.”

*CER:  indicates a non-literal, but good translation.  In the first example here, the verb “λέγει” 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. Another example is the use of “doubled negatives” or “negations” in Greek, which are not translated except in the correct English usage.  The designation NRIEH is equivalent to “Not Rendered Into English Here”.

CC BY 4.0 λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἐμὸν βρῶμά ἐστιν ἵνα ποιήσω τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός με (John 4:34) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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