Third Person Imperative in NT Greek

From Porter’s Idioms of the Greek New Testament (p.55):

Whereas the second person is similar to the English form when translated, the third person imperative requires what has sometimes been labeled a permissive sense (let…). However, any permissive sense is a phenomenon of English translation, not Greek. The third person Greek imperative is as strongly directive as the second person. ...

Rom 6.12: [Mê oun basileuetô hê hamartia en tôi thnêtôi humôn sômati] (therefore, sin is not to rule in your mortal body), with the third person imperative.

Luke 16:29 [akousatôsan autôn] (they are to hear them), with the third person plural imperative, which only appears approximately 34 times in the NT, compared to about 200 third person singular forms.

Posted by Nathan Bierma on 08/09 at 11:45 AM
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