λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἐὰν αὐτὸν θέλω μένειν ἕως ἔρχομαι, τί πρὸς σέ; σύ μοι ἀκολούθει (John 21:22)

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Title:  Jesus Said to Him, “If I Should Will Him to Remain Until I Come, What to Yo?  You Follow Me.”

The text is, “λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἐὰν αὐτὸν θέλω μένειν ἕως ἔρχομαι, τί πρὸς σέ; σύ μοι ἀκολούθει”.

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

αὐτῷ -> third person, personal, masculine, singular, dative pronoun -> to him

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

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

ἐὰν -> subordinating conditional conjunction -> if

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

θέλω -> first person, singular, present, active, subjunctive verb -> I should will

μένειν -> present, active, infinitive verb -> to remain

ἕως -> subordinating temporal conjunction -> until

ἔρχομαι -> first person, singular, present, middle, indicative verb -> I come

τί -> neuter, singular, nominative, interrogative pronoun -> what

πρὸς -> preposition taking the accusative for its object word -> to

σέ -> second person, personal, singular, accusative pronoun -> you

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

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

ἀκολούθει -> second person, singular, present, active, imperative verb -> you follow

The meaning of this verse is,

Jesus said to him, “If I should will him to remain until I come, what to you?  You follow me.”

*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”.

λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ἐὰν αὐτὸν θέλω μένειν ἕως ἔρχομαι, τί πρὸς σέ; σύ μοι ἀκολούθει (John 21:22) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.