Spoken to:
After Lazarus's death, Jesus comes to Martha and tells her he will rise again. She gets Mary and takes Jesus to the tomb.
KJV:
John 11:39 Take ye away the stone.
NIV :
John 11:39 “Take away the stone,”
LISTENERS HEARD:
Lift away the stone [at some point].
MY TAKE:
Roll them stones.
GREEK (Each Word Explained Bottom of Page):
LOST IN TRANSLATION:
The only interesting thing here is the tense of the verb. It isn't the present imperative, which would be normal. Instead, it is the aorist tense, which indicates something happening at a specific point in time. Since no point in time is mentioned, Christ is asking for the stone to be lifted at some point when people can do so.
# KJV TRANSLATION ISSUES:
# NIV TRANSLATION ISSUES:
EACH WORD of KJV :
Take -- "Take away" is one of Christ's favorite "multiple meaning" words. It is a verb that means "to raise up," "elevate," "to bear," "to carry off," "to take and apply to any use," "lifted" in the sense of "removed," and "to cause to cease." The verb also came to mean "remove" in the same way we describe stealing as "shoplifting."
ye -- This is from the second-person, plural form of the verb.
away -- This completes the idea of the verb.
the -- The word translated as "the" is the Greek definite article, without a noun, it has the sense of "the one." The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this," "that," "these," "those") than the English "the." See this article for more.
stone. -- The Greek word translated as "stone" means "a stone," "stone as a substance," and various specific types of stones, such as touchstones and altar stones. This should be translated as "stone" to distinguish it from the Greek word for "rock."
EACH WORD of NIV :
“Take away the stone,”
Take -- "Take away" is one of Christ's favorite "multiple meaning" words. It is a verb that means "to raise up," "elevate," "to bear," "to carry off," "to take and apply to any use," "lifted" in the sense of "removed," and "to cause to cease." The verb also came to mean "remove" in the same way we describe stealing as "shoplifting."
away -- This completes the idea of the verb.
the -- The word translated as "the" is the Greek definite article, without a noun, it has the sense of "the one." The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this," "that," "these," "those") than the English "the." See this article for more.
stone. -- The Greek word translated as "stone" means "a stone," "stone as a substance," and various specific types of stones, such as touchstones and altar stones. This should be translated as "stone" to distinguish it from the Greek word for "rock."
COMPARISON: GREEK to KJV :
Ἄρατε [56 verses](2nd pl aor imperat act) "Take ye away" is airo, which means "to lift up," "to raise," "to raise up," "to exalt," "to lift and take away," and "to remove." In some forms, it is the same as apaomai, which means to "pray to," or "pray for."
τὸν [821 verses](article sg masc acc) "The" is the Greek definite article, hos, ("the").
λίθον [15 verses](noun sg masc acc) "Stone" is lithos, which means "a stone," "stone as a substance," and various specific types of stones, such as touchstones, and altar stones.