Spoken to:
The crowd said that no one should know where the Anointed should come from. Jesus says he knows who sent him.
KJV:
John 7:29 But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath sent me.
NIV :
John 7:29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
LISTENERS HEARD:
I have seen him because I am from him. That one there sent me.
MY TAKE:
That one there sent us all out but we haven't seen him.
GREEK (Each Word Explained Bottom of Page):
LOST IN TRANSLATION:
The verb translated as "know" primarily means "see" and means "know" like our word "see" does when we say "I see." It is in the past perfect tense describing and action completed in the past, "have seen."
The word "sent" here is a different verb than the one translated as "sent" in a number of recent verses (John 7:28, John 7:18, John 7:16). This is the verb that the word "apostle" comes from. Why the change? Possibly to emphasize the "from him," since this word begins with the prefix "from." Possibly because those other verses used the verb as a participle ("the one sending") though it was never translated that way in the Bible. They all referred to the Father indirectly. Here, the verb is active and the Father is referred to obliquely as "that one there."
# KJV TRANSLATION ISSUES:
- OS -- Outdated Source -- The Greek word translated as "but" existed in the KJV Greek source but not the source we use today.
- MW -- Missing Word -- The pronoun repeats the information in the verb so it should be repeated in English like "I myself."
- WT - Wrong Tense - The English verb "know" is the present tense, but Greek is in the past perfect, a completed action, "have seen."
- IW - Inserted Word -- The word "and" doesn't exist in the source.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "he" should be something more like "that one there."
- WT - Wrong Tense - The verb "hath" indicates the past perfect tense, but the tense is something that happens at a specific point in time (past, present, or future).
- CW - Confusing Word -- The "sent" is not the same word translated as "sent" in the previous verse.
# NIV TRANSLATION ISSUES:
- IW - Inserted Word -- The word "but" doesn't exist in the source.
- MW -- Missing Word -- The pronoun repeats the information in the verb so it should be repeated in English like "I myself."
- WT - Wrong Tense - The English verb "know" is the present tense, but Greek is in the past perfect, a completed action, "have seen."
- IW - Inserted Word -- The word "and" doesn't exist in the source.
- WW - Wrong Word -- The word translated as "he" should be something more like "that one there."
- CW - Confusing Word -- The "sent" is not the same word translated as "sent" in the previous verse.
EACH WORD of KJV :
But -- (OS) There is nothing in the Greek that can be translated as "but" in the source we use today but it does exist in the source that the KJV translators used.
I -- The pronoun "I" is used here. Since, as the subject of the sentence, it is part of the verb, its explicit use accentuates who is speaking "I." Saying "I myself" captures this feeling in English.
missing "myself" -- (MW) The subjective pronoun repeats the information in the verb so it should be repeated in English like "I myself."
know -- (WT) The word translated as "know" means primarily "to see" and is used to mean "know' as we use the word "see" to mean "know" in English. This is in the past perfect tense, an action completed in the past, "have seen."
him: -- The word translated as "him" is the Greek word commonly translated as third-person pronouns in English.
for -- The word translated as "for" introduces a statement of fact or cause, "for what," "because," "since," and "wherefore."
I -- This is from the first-person, singular form of the verb.
am -- The verb "is" here is the common form of "to be" in Greek. It means to have a certain characteristic or remain in a certain condition. It also equates terms or assigns characteristics. With the genitive object, the sense is "belongs to."-- When the verb "to be" appears early in the clause before the subject, the sense is more like "it is" or, in the plural, "there are."
from -- The Greek preposition translated as "from" has many meanings, many of which depend on the case of its object. With the genitive, the sense is motion, "from the side of," "from beside," and generally "from." Here the form is genitive.
him, -- The word translated as "him" is the Greek word commonly translated as third-person pronouns in English. Though this is the objective form in English, it was a genitive in Greek, "of you."
and -- (IW) There is nothing that can be translated as "and" in the Greek source.
he -- (WW) The word translated as "he" is an adjective that highlights its noun as being in a specific place or time from a word that means "there." Used a pronoun, the sense is "that one there." It is not the pronoun nor just the form of the verb.
hath -- (WT) This helping verb "hath" indicates that the verb is the tense indicating an action completed in the past. This is not the tense of the verb here.
sent -- (CW) The "sent" here is a word that means "to send off" and "dispatch." It is the source of our word "apostle." This is not the same word translated as "sent" in the previous verse. This word means "sent out."
me. -- "Me" is the regular first-person pronoun in Greek as the object of the verb or preposition.
EACH WORD of NIV :
but -- -- (IW) There is nothing that can be translated as "but" in the Greek source.
I -- The pronoun "I" is used here. Since, as the subject of the sentence, it is part of the verb, its explicit use accentuates who is speaking "I." Saying "I myself" captures this feeling in English.
missing "myself" -- (MW) The subjective pronoun repeats the information in the verb so it should be repeated in English like "I myself."
know -- (WT) The word translated as "know" means primarily "to see" and is used to mean "know' as we use the word "see" to mean "know" in English. This is in the past perfect tense, an action completed in the past, "have seen."
him: -- The word translated as "him" is the Greek word commonly translated as third-person pronouns in English.
because -- The word translated as "because " introduces a statement of fact or cause, "for what," "because," "since," and "wherefore."
I -- This is from the first-person, singular form of the verb.
am -- The verb "is" here is the common form of "to be" in Greek. It means to have a certain characteristic or remain in a certain condition. It also equates terms or assigns characteristics. With the genitive object, the sense is "belongs to."-- When the verb "to be" appears early in the clause before the subject, the sense is more like "it is" or, in the plural, "there are."
from -- The Greek preposition translated as "from" has many meanings, many of which depend on the case of its object. With the genitive, the sense is motion, "from the side of," "from beside," and generally "from." Here the form is genitive.
him, -- The word translated as "him" is the Greek word commonly translated as third-person pronouns in English. Though this is the objective form in English, it was a genitive in Greek, "of you."
and -- (IW) There is nothing that can be translated as "and" in the Greek source.
he -- (WW) The word translated as "he" is an adjective that highlights its noun as being in a specific place or time from a word that means "there." Used a pronoun, the sense is "that one there." It is not the pronoun nor just the form of the verb.
sent -- (CW) The "sent" here is a word that means "to send off" and "dispatch." It is the source of our word "apostle." This is not the same word translated as "sent" in the previous verse. This word means "sent out."
me. -- "Me" is the regular first-person pronoun in Greek as the object of the verb or preposition.
COMPARISON: GREEK to KJV :
ἐγὼ [162 verses](pron 1st sg masc nom) "I" is ego, which is the first-person singular pronoun meaning "I." It also means "I at least," "for my part," "indeed," and for myself.
οἶδα [38 verses] (1st sg perf ind act) "Know" is oida which is a form of eido (ἴδω) which means "to see," "to examine," "to perceive," "to behold," "to know how to do," "to see with the mind's eye," and "to know."
αὐτόν, [720 verses] (adj sg masc acc) "Him" is autos, which means "the same," and the reflexive pronouns, "myself," "yourself," "himself," "herself," "itself," or the oblique case of the pronouns, "him," "her," and "it." It also means "one's true self," that is, "the soul" as opposed to the body and "of one's own accord." In the adverbial form, it means "just here" or "exactly there."
ὅτι [332 verses](adv/conj) "For" is hoti, which introduces a statement of fact "with regard to the fact that," "seeing that," and acts as a causal adverb meaning "for what," "because," "since," and "wherefore."
παρ᾽ [45 verses](prep) "With" is para, has many meanings, which depend on the case of its object and the sense of the verb.With the genitive, the sense is always motion, "from the side of," "from beside," "issuing from", and generally "from." With the dative, the sense is always static, "by the side of," "near," "in the presence of," and "before." With the accusative, its has a number of specialized meanings depending on the character of the verb, with coming/going "near," "beside," with placing "side-by-side," as a metaphor, "like" or "as a parody of, of comparison, "compared with" and many more including "along", "past", "beyond", "parallel (geometry)", "precisely at the moment of (time)," and "throughout (time)."
αὐτοῦ [720 verses](adj sg masc gen) "Him" is autos, which means "the same," and the reflexive pronouns, "myself," "yourself," "himself," "herself," "itself," or the oblique case of the pronouns, "him," "her," and "it." It also means "one's true self," that is, "the soul" as opposed to the body and "of one's own accord." In the adverbial form, it means "just here" or "exactly there."
εἰμὶ [614 verses](1st sg pres ind act) "I am" is eimi, which means "to be," "to exist," "to be the case," of circumstance and events "to happen," and "is possible." With the genitive object, the sense is "belongs to." It can also mean "must" with a dative.
κἀκεῖνός [107 verses](adj sg masc nom) "That" is ekeinos, which means "the person there," "that person," "that thing," and, in the form of an adverb, "in that case," "in that way," "at that place," and "in that manner."
με [49 verses](pron 1st sg masc acc) "Me" is eme, which is the objective first-person, objective, singular pronoun that means "me."
ἀπέστειλεν. [60 verses] (3rd sg aor ind act ) "Hath sent" is apostello, which means "to send off," "to send away," or "to dispatch."