μὴ σὺ μείζων εἶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰακώβ (John 4:12)

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Title -> Are You Greater than Our Father, Jacob

The text is, “μὴ σὺ μείζων εἶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰακώβ, ὃς ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν τὸ φρέαρ καὶ αὐτὸς ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἔπιεν καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ θρέμματα αὐτοῦ”.

μὴ -> negative particle -> are

σὺ -> second person, personal, singular, nominative pronoun -> you

μείζων -> masculine, singular, nominative, comparative adjective -> greater than

εἶ -> second person, singular, present, indicative verb -> are

τοῦ -> masculine, singular, genitive article -> the NRIEH**

πατρὸς -> masculine, singular, genitive noun -> father

ἡμῶν -> first person, personal, plural, genitive pronoun -> our

Ἰακώβ -> masculine, singular, genitive, proper noun -> Jacob’

ὃς -> masculine, singular, nominative, relative, definite pronoun -> who

ἔδωκεν -> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> gave

ἡμῖν -> first person, personal, plural, dative pronoun -> to us

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

φρέαρ -> neuter, singular, accusative noun -> well

καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and

αὐτὸς -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, nominative pronoun -> he

ἐξ -> preposition taking the genitive for its object word -> from or out of

αὐτοῦ -> third person, personal, neuter, singular, genitive pronoun -> it

ἔπιεν -> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> drank

καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and

οἱ -> masculine, plural, nominative article -> the NRIEH

υἱοὶ -> masculine, plural, nominative noun -> sons

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

καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and

τὰ -> neuter, plural, nominative article -> the NRIEH

θρέμματα -> neuter, plural, nominative noun -> livestock

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

The meaning of this verse is,

Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave the well to us, who drank out of it, and his sons, and his livestock.”

**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”.

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CC BY 4.0 μὴ σὺ μείζων εἶ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰακώβ (John 4:12) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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