Λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεῦτε ἀριστήσατε. (John 21:12)

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Title:  Jesus Said to Them, “Come, You Eat Breakfast.”

The text is, “Λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεῦτε ἀριστήσατε. οὐδεὶς δὲ ἐτόλμα τῶν μαθητῶν ἐξετάσαι αὐτόν σὺ τίς εἶ; εἰδότες ὅτι ὁ κύριός ἐστιν”.

Λέγει -> third person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> says CER* said

αὐτοῖς -> third person, personal, masculine, plural, dative pronoun -> to them

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

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

δεῦτε -> interjection -> come

ἀριστήσατε -> second person, plural, aorist, active, imperative, you eat breakfast

οὐδεὶς -> masculine, singular, nominative, indefinite adjective -> none | not one

δὲ -> coordinating conjunction -> now

ἐτόλμα -> third person, singular, imperfect, active, indicative verb -> dared

τῶν -> masculine, plural, genitive article -> of the

μαθητῶν -> masculine, plural, genitive noun -> disciples

ἐξετάσαι -> aorist, active, infinitive verb -> to ask

αὐτόν -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, accusative pronoun -> him

σὺ -> second person, personal, singular, nominative pronoun -> you

τίς -> masculine, singular, nominative, interrogative pronoun -> who

εἶ -> second person, singular, present, indicative verb -> are

εἰδότες -> perfect, active, participle, masculine, plural, nominative verb -> knowing

ὅτι -> subordinating complementary conjunction -> that

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

κύριός -> masculine, singular, nominative noun -> Lord

ἐστιν -> third person, singular, present, indicative verb -> it is CER it was

The meaning of this verse is,

Jesus said to them, “Come, you eat breakfast.”  None of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”, knowing that it was the Lord.

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

Λέγει αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς δεῦτε ἀριστήσατε. (John 21:12) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.