Ἰωάννης μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ κέκραγεν (John 1:15)

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Title:  John Witnessed About Him and Cried Out

The text is, “Ἰωάννης μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ κέκραγεν λέγων· οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον· ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν”.

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

μαρτυρεῖ -> third person, present, active, indicative verb -> witnesses CER* witnessed

περὶ -> preposition taking the genitive for its object word, -> about | respecting, | concerning

αὐτοῦ -> third person, personal, singular, masculine, genitive pronoun -> him

καὶ -> coordinating conjunction -> and

κέκραγεν -> third person singular, perfect, active, indicative verb -> cries out CER cried out

λέγων -> present active participial, masculine, singular, nominative verb -> saying

οὗτος -> masculine, singular, nominative, demonstrative pronoun -> this

ἦν -> third person, singular, perfect, indicative verb -> was

ὃν -> definite, relative, masculine, singular, accusative pronoun -> whom

εἶπον -> first person, singular, aorist, active, indicative verb -> I said

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

ὀπίσω is an improper preposition taking the genitive in its object, -> after

μου -> first person, personal, singular, genitive pronoun -> me

ἐρχόμενος -> present, middle, participial, masculine, singular, nominative verb -> comes

ἔμπροσθέν is an improper preposition taking the genitive to its object word -> before

μου -> first person, personal, singular, genitive pronoun -> me

γέγονεν-> third person singular, perfect, active, indicative verb -> arose

ὅτι -> subordinating conjunction of causation -> because

πρῶτός -> masculine, singular, nominative, ordinal adjective -> first | before

μου -> first person, personal, singular, genitive pronoun -> me

ἦν -> third person, singular, perfect, indicative verb -> he was

The meaning of this verse is,

John witnessed about him and cried out, “This was whom I said, ‘He who comes after me arose before me.’, because he was before me.”

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

Ἰωάννης μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ κέκραγεν (John 1:15) by Dennis Glover is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.