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Title: This One Came to Jesus
The text is, “οὗτος ἦλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν νυκτὸς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· ῥαββί, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἐλήλυθας διδάσκαλος· οὐδεὶς γὰρ δύναται ταῦτα τὰ σημεῖα ποιεῖν ἃ σὺ ποιεῖς ἐὰν μὴ ᾖ ὁ θεὸς μετ’ αὐτου”.
οὗτος -> masculine, singular, nominative, demonstrative pronoun -> this one
ἦλθεν -> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> came
πρὸς -> preposition taking the accusative for its object word -> to
αὐτὸν -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, accusative pronoun -> him
νυκτὸς -> feminine, singular, genitive noun -> at night
καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and
εἶπεν -> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> said
αὐτῷ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, dative pronoun -> to him
ῥαββί -> Hebraicized particle -> Rabbi
οἴδαμεν -> first person, plural, perfect, active, indicative verb -> we know
ὅτι -> subordinating conjunction -> that
ἀπὸ -> preposition taking the genitive for its object word -> from
θεοῦ -> masculine, singular, genitive noun -> God
ἐλήλυθας -> second person, singular, perfect, active, indicative verb -> you are come
διδάσκαλος -> masculine, singular, nominative noun -> a teacher
οὐδεὶς -> masculine, singular, nominative, indefinite adjective -> no one
γὰρ -> coordinating explanatory conjunction -> for
δύναται -> third person, singular, present, passive, indicative verb -> is able
ταῦτα -> neuter, plural, accusative, demonstrative pronoun -> these things
τὰ -> neuter, plural, accusative article -> that
σημεῖα -> neuter, plural, accusative noun -> signs
ποιεῖν -> present, active, infinitive verb -> to do
ἃ -> neuter, plural, accusative, relative, definite pronoun -> that
σὺ -> second person, personal, singular, nominative pronoun -> you
ποιεῖς -> second person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> do
ἐὰν -> subordinating conditional conjunction -> unless
μὴ -> negative particle -> lest
ᾖ -> third person, singular, present, subjunctive verb -> he is
ὁ -> masculine, singular, nominative article -> the NRIEH**
θεὸς: masculine, singular, nominative noun -> God
μετ’ -> preposition taking the genitive for its object word -> with
αὐτοῦ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, genitive pronoun -> him
The meaning of this verse is, “This one came to him at night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, that no one is able to do these things, the signs that you do, unless God is with him.’”
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Note: The confusion borne by the unless unless or unless lest pairing in the final clause, arises from the fact that the first word is ἐὰν, a conditional subordinating conjunction which is sometimes used as an indicator for a subjunctive mood verb, as it is used here, while the word μὴ is a negative particle meaning little more than no or not, but not always, as it also can be used as a conjunction. I have chosen to translate ἐὰν μὴ into English “unless”.
**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”.
οὗτος ἦλθεν πρὸς (John 3:2) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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