Ἔρχεται οὖν εἰς πόλιν τῆς Σαμαρείας (John 4:5)

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Title -> So He Came to the Town of Samaria

The text is, “Ἔρχεται οὖν εἰς πόλιν τῆς Σαμαρείας λεγομένην Συχὰρ πλησίον τοῦ χωρίου ὃ ἔδωκεν Ἰακὼβ [τῷ] Ἰωσὴφ τῷ υἱῷ αὐτοῦ”.

Ἔρχεται -> third person, singular, present, middle, indicative verb -> he comes CER* he came

οὖν -> inferential coordinating conjunction -> so

εἰς -> preposition taking the accusative for its object word -> into

πόλιν -> feminine, singular, accusative noun -> town

τῆς -> feminine, singular, genitive article -> of the NRIEH**

Σαμαρείας -> feminine, singular, genitive, proper noun -> Samaria

λεγομένην -> present, passive, participial, feminine, singular, accusative verb -> being called

Συχὰρ -> feminine, singular, accusative, proper noun -> Sychar

πλησίον -> improper preposition taking the genitive for its object word -> near

τοῦ -> neuter, singular, genitive article -> the

χωρίου -> neuter, singular, genitive article -> field

ὃ -> neuter, singular, accusative, definite, relative pronoun -> that

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

Ἰακὼβ -> masculine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> Jacob

[τῷ] -> masculine, singular, dative article -> the NRIEH

Ἰωσὴφ -> masculine, singular, dative, proper noun -> to Joseph

τῷ -> masculine, singular, dative article -> the NRIEH

υἱῷ -> masculine, singular, dative noun -> son

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

The meaning of this verse is,

So he came into the town of Samaria being called Sychar near the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.”

*CER:  indicates a non-literal, but good translation.  In the first 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”.

CC BY 4.0 Ἔρχεται οὖν εἰς πόλιν τῆς Σαμαρείας (John 4:5) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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