Ἔρχεται Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἀγγέλλουσα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὅτι ἑώρακα τὸν κύριον (John 20:18)

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Title:  Mary Magdalene went Announcing to the Disciples that She had Seen the Lord

The text is, “Ἔρχεται Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἀγγέλλουσα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὅτι ἑώρακα τὸν κύριον καὶ ταῦτα εἶπεν αὐτῇ”.

Ἔρχεται -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> goes CER*  went

Μαριὰμ -> feminine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> Mary

ἡ -> feminine, singular, nominative article -> the NRIEH**

Μαγδαληνὴ -> feminine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> Magdalene

ἀγγέλλουσα -> present, active, participial, feminine, singular, nominative verb -> announcing

τοῖς -> masculine, plural, dative article -> to the

μαθηταῖς -> masculine, plural, dative noun -> disciples

ὅτι -> subordinating complementary conjunction -> that

ἑώρακα -> first person, singular, perfect, active, indicative verb -> she had seen

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

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

καὶ -> coordinating additive conjunction -> and

ταῦτα -> neuter, plural, accusative, demonstrative pronoun -> the things

εἶπε -> third person, singular, aorist, active,indicative verb -> he said

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

The meaning of this verse is,

Mary Magdalene went announcing to the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and the things he said to her.

*CER:  indicates a non-literal, but good translation.  In the example here, the verb “Ἔρχεται” 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”.

Ἔρχεται Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἀγγέλλουσα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὅτι ἑώρακα τὸν κύριον (John 20:18) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.