Greek I; lesson 12

John 1:23

ἔφη· ἐγὼ φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ· εὐθύνατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, καθὼς εἶπεν Ἠσαΐας ὁ προφήτης.

ἔφη· ἐγὼ φωνὴ βοῶντος

• εφη is a third person singular verb from φημι. It is imperfect tense. Since it is quite irregular, don’t spend any additional time on it. Translate it as, “He said…”
• εγω is the subject of the clause; φωνη is a PN. You have to supply some form of ειμι in your translation.

βοωντος is a participle. The circumflex above the omega means a contraction has occurred.

βοα-         stem
βοαo         connecting vowel
βοω           contraction
βοωντ          participle morpheme
βοωντος         case ending

You might wonder why βοωντος violates principle 7 here.βοωντος modifies φωνη but they do not agree.  Likely the reason is because John is here quoting the OT.

 

ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ·

Even if you can’t parse ερημω, you will be able to parse its article.

 

εὐθύνατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου,

There are two things noteworthy about ευθυνατε:

1. Its mood – imperative.
2. This verb is aorist tense, but where is the tense formative? This is what is called a liquid verb. The stem is ευθυν- which you can see ends in a nasal which is a liquid letter. Because of this, the tense formative is not σα but α. There is no connecting vowel in liquid verbs.

 

καθὼς εἶπεν Ἠσαΐας ὁ προφήτης.

ο προφητης is in apposition to Ησαιας. Ησαιας is the subject of what verbειπεν?

καθως is a subordinating conjunction here and hence, a DMW. This dependent clause is adverbial. What verb is it modifyingεὐθύνατε? What adverbial question is it answeringhow??

 

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John 1:24

Καὶ ἀπεσταλμένοι ἦσαν ἐκ τῶν Φαρισαίων.

απεσταλμενοι ησαν is what is called a periphrastic construction. This simply means that a form of ειμι is being used with a participle to form the main verb. We do the same thing in English with our progressive tense. Since we have an imperfect form of ειμι with a perfect participle, the meaning is pluperfect (see BBG 30.14). So we will translate this as,

“They had been sent by the pharisees.”

Notice the possible uses for εκ. Here it is clearly used in the sense of “means”; “…sent by the Pharisees.”

 

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John 1:25

καὶ ἠρώτησαν αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ· τί οὖν βαπτίζεις εἰ σὺ οὐκ εἶ ὁ χριστὸς οὐδὲ Ἠλίας οὐδὲ ὁ προφήτης;

Note the evolution of ἠρώτησαν:

ερωτα-        stem
ηρωτα         augment
ηρωτασα       tense formative
ηρωτησα         principle 12
ηρωτησαν         verb ending

.

τί οὖν βαπτίζεις εἰ σὺ οὐκ εἶ ὁ χριστὸς οὐδὲ Ἠλίας οὐδὲ ὁ προφήτης;

What kind of conditional statement is thiscondition of the first class (RWP will always help you identify conditions).

εἰ in this verse cannot be distinguished from εἶ simply on the basis of spelling.

The first one is a subordinating conjunction introducing a hypothetical proposition; hence, a DMW.

The second is the second person plural form of ειμι.

χριστος, ηλιας, and προφητης are PNs.