G680

• {"n":"John 20:17","s":"Touch me not. The Greek is stop doing what you are already doing.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=john-20-17","r":"John 20:17","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"The King James reads touch me not. Modern versions read do not cling to me, do not hold on to me, or stop clinging to me. The correction is now near-universal."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"**Do not shout.** **Stop shouting.** The first is a rule for the future. The second says you are shouting right now and should quit. English uses different words. Greek uses different tenses of one verb."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Haptou is a present imperative with a negative. In Greek that construction ordinarily means stop an action in progress rather than forbid one not yet begun. Mary is already holding him. The command is to let go, not to keep away."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English negative commands have no aspect. Do not touch me is the same shape whether the touching has started or not, so a translator must add words like stop or cling to carry it."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"A negated present imperative in Greek usually means stop. A negated aorist subjunctive usually means do not start. That single distinction fixes a surprising number of hard verses."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"There is no real dispute left. The King James rendering reflects a grammatical understanding that has since been refined, and every modern version has moved."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u1f05\u03c0\u03c4\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 haptomai \u00b7 G680"}],"src":["John 20:27 invites Thomas to touch, which is the internal evidence against the older rendering","Matthew 28:9 has the women already holding his feet","Standard grammars on the negated present imperative; see Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics"]}