Ὡς οὖν ἔγνω ὁ Ἰησοῦς (John 4:1)

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Title -> Now When Jesus Learned

The text is, Ὡς οὖν ἔγνω ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι ἤκουσαν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι ὅτι Ἰησοῦς πλείονας μαθητὰς ποιεῖ καὶ βαπτίζει ἢ Ἰωάννης.

Ὡς -> temporal subordinating conjunction -> now

οὖν -> inferential coordinating conjunction -> when

ἔγνω -> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> learned

ὁ -> masculine, singular, nominative article -> the NRIEH**

Ἰησοῦς -> masculine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> Jesus

ὅτι -> subordinating conjunction -> that

ἤκουσαν -> third person, plural, aorist, active, indicative verb -> had heard

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

Φαρισαῖοι -> masculine, plural, nominative, proper noun -> Pharisees

ὅτι -> subordinating conjunction -> that

Ἰησοῦς -> masculine, singular,nominative, proper noun -> Jesus

πλείονας -> masculine, plural, accusative, comparative adjective -> more

μαθητὰς -> masculine, plural, accusative noun -> disciples

ποιεῖ -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> makes CER* made

καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and

βαπτίζει -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> baptizes CER baptized

ἢ -> comparative particle -> than

Ἰωάννης -> masculine, singular, nominative, proper noun -> John

The meaning of this verse is,

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John

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

Ὡς οὖν ἔγνω ὁ Ἰησοῦς (John 4:1) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.