Monday, December 4, 2023

David L. Mathewson on "Command" in Biblical Greek

  

Command

 

Overlapping with the imperative mood and subjunctive mood, the future form can function to express a command or prohibition. Compared to the imperative and subjunctive, the future form is semantically more forceful, grammaticalizing expectation toward the process.

 

καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. (Matt. 1:21)
And you shall call his name Jesus [command].

 

γέγραπται ὅτι οὐκ ἐπ᾽ ἄρτῳ μόνῳ ζήσεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος. (Luke 4:4)
it is written that a persona shall not live by bread alone [prohibition]. (David L. Mathewson, Voice and Mood: A Linguistic Approach [Essentials of Biblical Greek Grammar; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2021], 134)