2023: The third epistle of John

[Brian K. Mitchell]

I have created a new plan for reading 'Greek in a year' or rather for the remaining months of the 2023.

The book of choice is 3rd John, because it is so short I think it possible for anyone to leisurely read through it by the end of 2023.

 

Okay...

The reading plan for The Third Epistle of John is as follows:

 

Week 1 (October 23rd to October 21st)           3rd John verse 1

Week 2 (October 29th to November 4th)        3rd John verse 2

Week 3 (November 5th to November 11th)     3rd John verse 3

Week 4 (November 12th to November 18th)   3rd John verse 4

Week 5 (November 19th to November 25th)   3rd John verse 5

Week 6 (November 26th to December 2nd)    3rd John verse 6

Week 7 (December 3rd to December 9th)       3rd John verses 7 & 8

Week 8 (December 10th to December 16th).  3rd John verses 9 & 10

Week 9 (December 17th to December 23rd).  3rd John verses 11 & 12

Week 10 (December 24th to December 31st) 3rd John verses 13 to 15

 

If, you are just beginning Greek, have completed few semesters of Greek, or are rusty at Greek please join.... 

 

Regards,

        Brian

Edited October 22, 2023 by Brian K. Mitchell

[Lawrence]

@Brian K. Mitchell

 

This sounds good. Do we just read, or add our translations / exegesis?

[Brian K. Mitchell]

2 hours ago, Lawrence said:

 

This sounds good. Do we just read, or add our translations / exegesis?

 

Sure, I think we could add our own translations, word parsings, and have conversation about grammar and syntax.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

first Let's Listen to an audio reading of verse one.

Verse one ranged from 00:00 to 00:05 on the following YouTube video:

 

 

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I pinned this so we can feature it. Anytime you start a new reading plan on here, just let me know and I'll feature it. This might even be fun to feature in an email newsletter or blog post.

[Daniel_Appleyard]

This is great, I am a novice at Greek. I can read, but that is about it

[Lawrence]

3 John 1     Ὁ πρεσβύτερος Γαΐῳ τῷ ἀγαπητῷ, ὃν ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.

 

The Elder,

To the beloved Gaios, whom I truly love.

 

Notes:

Truth is a theme in 3 John. The dative form ἀληθείᾳ appears 5 times and the genitive singular ἀληθείας once.

v.1 love [Gaios] in truth

v.3 faithfulness to the truth, walk in truth (twice)

v.8 become workers for the truth

v.12 truth itself testifies [about someone's character]

 

In v.3, v.8 and v.12, truth appears to be a synonym for the ministry, or perhaps the gospel.

If we import this back into v.1, perhaps we can translate it this way:

 

3 John 1:1

The Elder,

To the beloved Gaios, whom I cherish as a ministry partner.

[Brian K. Mitchell]

 

 

18 hours ago, Nathan Parker said:

I pinned this so we can feature it. Anytime you start a new reading plan on here, just let me know and I'll feature it. This might even be fun to feature in an email newsletter or blog post.

Hey, thank you so much! 

 

19 hours ago, Daniel_Appleyard said:

This is great, I am a novice at Greek. I can read, but that is about it

Please free to ask questions, comment, or even inform us of mistakes.

 

13 hours ago, Lawrence said:

3 John 1     Ὁ πρεσβύτερος Γαΐῳ τῷ ἀγαπητῷ, ὃν ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.

 

The Elder,

To the beloved Gaios, whom I truly love.

Thank you for participating and being the first to post your translation and notes on this verse.

 

[Brian K. Mitchell]

Ὁ πρεσβύτερος Γαΐῳ τῷ ἀγαπητῷ, ὃν ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.

 

PARSING INFORMATION:

Ὁ (the definite article)

πρεσβύτερος (the elder ) nominative masculine singular comparative adjective

Γαΐῳ τῷ ἀγαπητῷ (the beloved Gaios) everything is in the dative masculine singular here.

ὃν (who) pronoun definite masculine singular accusative

ἐγὼ ( I ) first person singular pronoun of course it is nominative that what we would expect.

ἀγαπῶ (love) first singular present active indicative

ἐν ἀληθείᾳ. (in truth or in the truth) dative feminine singular

 

A Few of my own notes and opinions:

Both ἐν ἀληθείᾳ (in truth) are in agreement with τῷ ἀγαπητῷ (the beloved) as both being in the dative which is pretty obvious being that this the individual who the letter is being sent to. In Ancient Greek the dative often has a locative nuance which makes fits naturally with the usually translation of "in truth" . However, the dative can also carry the weight of the so called instrumental case which might lead some to understand  ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ as meaning I love you by the means of the truth. ἐν ἀληθείᾳ might also be understood as meaning the in which or the manner in which Gaios is being loved and actually a number of modern Greek versions or translations take this position and the dative ἀληθείᾳ (truth) turns into the greek adverb αληθινά (Yes, I know it can also be considered an adjective) and even into ειλικρινά (sincerely).

 

Just for fun here are a few examples of how this verse is rendered in modern Greek versions:

(Translation one) Ο Πρεσβύτερος, προς τον αγαπητό Γάιο, που εγώ τον αγαπώ αληθινά.

(Translation two) Εγώ ο πρεσβύτερος προς τον αγαπητό Γάιο που εγώ τον αγαπώ ειλικρινά.

(Translation three) ΠPEΣBYTEPOΣ προς τον Γάιο, τον αγαπητό, τον οποίο εγώ αγαπώ αληθινά.

 

Grace and Peace,

                            Brian

[Brian K. Mitchell]

https://ugg.readthedocs.io/en/latest/case_dative.html

Quote

Summary¶

In Koiné Greek, the dative case ending can serve a wide range of functions. It can indicate the indirect object (or recipient) of a verbal action. It can also express a variety of adverbial meanings, including location, instrument, manner, or relation.

......................

1. Indirect object or personal interest - It serves as the case of personal interest by indicating the indirect object of the verb. It points to whom something was done or for whom something was done. It can also be used to indicate someone or something that is being referred to by the verb, including possession. [See  Dative_Indirect Object]

2. Location - It may indicate the location (in place, sphere, or time) of an event. [See Dative_location]

3. Instrumental - It may indicate the means, cause, manner, agent of an action. [See Dative_Instrumental]

4. Direct object- Some verbs take their direct object in the dative case. [See Dative_Direct_Object]

Note: An indirect object is the person(s) or thing(s) toward which the verbal action of a verb or verb form is directed.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Brian K. Mitchell

[Brian K. Mitchell]

Daily Dose of Greek by Dr. Rob Plummer one 3 John 1:1

 

 

[Lawrence]

@Brian K. Mitchell

 

Thanks for sharing the extra information.

 

Another point of interest is that ἐγώ likely conveys emphasis since the verb ἀγαπητῷ is already in the first person, making ἐγώ redundant.

If so, why the emphasis is there? Why call attention to himself as the nominative to ἀγαπητῷ? Is it conveying a sense of heightened emotion that although Gaius has been a wonderful co-worker, there were some bad examples (v.9-10) that John was worried he might start to follow (v.11)? Or does it just signify a heartfelt endorsement of Gaius? John is certainly seeking to connect with Gaius in this letter.

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

I love Rob's videos. He was using BibleWorks. I need to reach out to him about Accordance. :-) 

[Brian K. Mitchell]

20 hours ago, Lawrence said:

Another point of interest is that ἐγώ likely conveys emphasis since the verb ἀγαπητῷ is already in the first person, making ἐγώ redundant.

If so, why the emphasis is there? 

ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ also occurs in opening to second John:

2John 1 Ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῆς, οὓς ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐγνωκότες τὴν ἀλήθειαν,

 

 I thought it would be also interesting to see if there are any other occurrences of the first person pronoun 'I' (   ἐγὼ   ) immediately followed by a first person verb to be found in the New Testament. Accordance Bible software makes this type of search easy:

 

 

 

[Lawrence]

@Brian K. Mitchell

 

Good idea - thank you.

 

I had a look and it seems that ἐγώ doesn't add as much stress as I previously thought. A lot of the time, it just gives the speaker a bit more colour.

If someone was taking a roll call and said, "Lawrence?", the difference between 1S alone and ἐγώ+1S is a bit like replying "Present" vs "I'm present" - not a huge difference, just slightly emphasising the person rather than just the action.

 

Would you mind checking the following? I tried doing a text search:

"=ἐγώ" <FOLLOWED BY> ([VERB first singular] <not>  εἰμί)

 

Why doesn't 3 John (and even 2 John) appear in the list? They're missing even if I take out the "<not>  εἰμί" part. Construct search finds a lot more instances.

[Tim Planche]

Liked this as well - Looks also there is a variation in use depending on  author - many instances in the gospel of John

 

the forllowing search syntax may be better

=ἐγώ @[PRONOUN  singular nominative] <WITHIN 2 Words> *@ [VERB first singular]@-εἰμί

 

or 

=ἐγώ @[PRONOUN  first singular nominative] <WITHIN 1 Words> *@ [VERB first singular present active indicative]

 

to reproduce the construct search