Greek Studies: John 1:31-34

Devin Morris
Mar 4, 2021
3 min read

31 κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, ἀλλ’ ἵνα φανερωθῇ τῷ Ἰσραὴλ διὰ τοῦτο ἦλθον ἐγὼ ἐν ὕδατι βαπτίζων. 32 Καὶ ἐμαρτύρησεν Ἰωάννης λέγων ὅτι τεθέαμαι τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον ὡς περιστερὰν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἔμεινεν ἐπ’ αὐτόν. 33 κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, ἀλλ’ ὁ πέμψας με βαπτίζειν ἐν ὕδατι ἐκεῖνός μοι εἶπεν· ἐφ’ ὃν ἂν ἴδῃς τὸ πνεῦμα καταβαῖνον καὶ μένον ἐπ’ αὐτόν, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ βαπτίζων ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ. 34 κἀγὼ ἑώρακα καὶ μεμαρτύρηκα ὅτι οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ.

Translation:

31 And I, myself, did not know him but in order that he might be made known to Israel on account of these things, I came baptizing in water. 32 And John witnessed by saying, "I saw the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and rest on him. 33 And I, myself, did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water, he said to me 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain on, he is the one who is baptizing with the Holy Spirit.'" 34 And I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.

The Gospel of John is a fun book to do Greek in. It's definitely one of, if not the, easiest Greek texts in the New Testament. I'd say if you're getting into Greek for the first time, or getting back into it, start with 1 John, then move on to the Gospel of John (hit up 1 Peter very last... whether it be that he was just a poor writer, or his Semitic influence messed with his composition its one of the toughest NT books in my opinion).

Now to the text...

κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν... both in verses 31 and 33 we have two emphatic phrases. You have the Crasis conjunction κἀγὼ that translates "And I." This is when the vowels/diphthong at the end of a word contracts with the vowel/diphthong at the beginning of a word (Smyth, 68 c.). In this case, it's καὶ and ἐγὼ. This emphatic phrasing is throughout this passage (κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν...ἦλθον ἐγὼ...κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν...κἀγὼ ἑώρακα καὶ μεμαρτύρηκα). This could be part of John's attempt to distinguish the two. Notice the emphasis on referring to "that" Jesus (ἐκεῖνός [v. 33; this is in reference to YHWH, but I still see John's attempt at distancing himself from both figures, YHWH and the Christ. YHWH is "that" far off one who is able to appoint significance to "this" one, who is definitely not John]...οὗτός [v. 33...οὗτός [v. 34])

ᾔδειν Although this is technically a pluperfect form (because Koine Greek began translating οἶδα with a present tense rather than a perfect), it takes an imperfect tense when translating (Machen 588).

διὰ with the accusative it's translated as "on account of"

ἐν ὕδατι it can be confusing, but ἐν becomes the "all-purpose" preposition in the NT. Here, its shouldn't be translated as "in" but rather it takes on an instrumental usage and should be translated as "by/with"

ἐμαρτύρησεν... λέγων ὅτι this participle (λέγων) is redundant as you can tell from reading. John "witnesses" and, "says." That's fairly common though. You'll also see that the ὅτι drops out in translation as well. That's because in this case, it is introducing direct discourse or speech. So instead is translating, "And John witnessed by saying that..." ἐμαρτύρησεν is acting as the head/controlling verb which places λέγων as an Adverbial Participle showing the "means" by which John witnessed. "He witnessed by saying..."

τὸ πνεῦμα the article can do a lot of things to other words. With this noun, it is dubbing it as a noun of Par Excellence. Meaning it is the extreme of a particular class. It is "THE Spirit." (Wallace, 222)

ἐφ’ ὃν ἂν ἴδῃς the first word is actually ἐπὶ ("on") but when coming before a vowel with a rough breathing mark it changes to ἐφ’. Any time I see the ἂν I panic on the inside. Just a little bit. It always stumped me when starting out with Greek. Just remember that it shows some aspect of contingency (here, it relates closely to a 3rd or 5th conditional sentence). Its usually a pretty good indicator that the subjunctive is about to come - hence, ἴδῃς.

That's all I can get to today. I am working on a second entry to YHWH's Divine Council series so look for that soon! As always let me know about anything you see in the text here that I missed or that stands out to you. Have a great weekend!

Greek Studies: John 1:31-34

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