οὗτος ἦλθεν πρὸς (John 3:2)

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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”.

 

CC BY 4.0 οὗτος ἦλθεν πρὸς (John 3:2) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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