ἀπεκρίθη ἡ γυνὴ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ (John 4:17)

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Title -> The Woman Answered and Said to Him

The text is, “ἀπεκρίθη ἡ γυνὴ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα. λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· καλῶς εἶπας ὅτι ἄνδρα οὐκ ἔχω”.

ἀπεκρίθη -> third person, singular, aorist, passive, indicative verb -> answered

ἡ -> feminine, singular, nominative article -> the

γυνὴ -> feminine, singular, nominative noun -> woman

καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and

εἶπεν -> third person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> said

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

οὐκ -> negative particle -> no

ἔχω -> first person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> I have

ἄνδρα -> masculine, singular, accusative noun -> husband

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 noun -> Jesus

καλῶς -> adverb -> rightly

εἶπας -> second person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> you said

ὅτι -> subordinating conjunction -> that NRIEH

ἄνδρα -> masculine, singular, accusative noun -> husband

οὐκ -> negative particle -> no

ἔχω -> first person, singular, present, active, indicative verb -> I have

The meaning of this verse is,

The woman answered and said to him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Rightly you have said, ‘I have no husband.’”

*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 ἀπεκρίθη ἡ γυνὴ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ (John 4:17) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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