λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· πίστευέ μοι (John 4:21)

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Title -> Jesus Said to Her, “Believe Me”

The text is, “λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· πίστευέ μοι, γύναι, ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα ὅτε οὔτε ἐν τῷ ὄρει τούτῳ οὔτε ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις προσκυνήσετε τῷ πατρί”.

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

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

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

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

πίστευέ -> second person, singular, present, active, imperative verb -> believe

μοι -> first person, personal, singular, dative pronoun -> me

γύναι -> feminine, singular, vocative noun -> woman

ὅτι -> subordinating conjunction -> that

ἔρχεται -> third person, singular, present, middle, indicative verb -> is coming

ὥρα -> feminine, singular, nominative noun -> the hour

ὅτε -> subordinating temporal conjunction -> when

οὔτε -> coordinating correlative conjunction -> neither

ἐν -> preposition taking the dative for it object word -> in

τῷ -> neuter, singular, dative article -> the NRIEH**

ὄρει -> neuter, singular, dative noun -> mountain

τούτῳ -> neuter, singular, dative, demonstrative pronoun -> this

οὔτε -> coordinating correlative conjunction -> nor

ἐν -> preposition taking the dative for its object word ->

Ἱεροσολύμοις -> neuter, plural, dative, proper noun -> Jerusalem

προσκυνήσετε -> second person, plural, future, active, indicative verb -> you will worship

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

πατρί -> masculine, singular, dative noun -> Father

The meaning of this verse is,

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman,  that the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”

*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. Another example is the use of “doubled negatives” or “negations” in Greek, which are not translated except in the correct English usage.  The designation NRIEH is equivalent to “Not Rendered Into English Here”.

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CC BY 4.0 λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· πίστευέ μοι (John 4:21) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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