John 11:23 Thy brother shall rise

Spoken to
an individual

After Lazarus's death, Jesus comes to Martha. She tells Jesus that she trusts that whatever he asks from the Divine will be given.

KJV

John 11:23 Thy brother shall rise again.

NIV

John 11:23 Your brother will rise again.

LISTENERS HEARD

He will raise up by himself , this brother of yours.

MY TAKE

We lift ourselves up or we put ourselves down.

GREEK (Each Word Explained Bottom of Page)
LOST IN TRANSLATION

The word translated "shall rise " is the one Jesus always used when talking about the resurrection of the dead. It means both something physically being raised and someone being awaken from sleep, referring back to Jesus's original statement about Lazarus. The tense is the future, something that will certainly happen.

The voice of this verb, however, is interesting. In its active voice, this verb acts on an object. It means to raise up something or to wake up someone. In the passive voice, it means being raised up or awoken by someone else. The middle voice, used here, refers to someone acting on themselves, raising themselves or waking themselves up. Jesus uses all these voices to refer to the raising of the dead. Here, it is in a middle form, which indicates someone acting on himself. In other words, Jesus is not saying that he or the Father will raise Lazarus up, but that he will raise himself up.

There is no Greek word corresponding to "again" in the Greek source. It actually doesn't quite make sense because Lazarus had never risen before.

 

# KJV TRANSLATION ISSUES
1
  • IW - Inserted Word -- The word "again" doesn't exist in the source.
# NIV TRANSLATION ISSUES
1
  • IW - Inserted Word -- The word "again" doesn't exist in the source.
EACH WORD of KJV

Thy  -- The word translated as "thy" is the genitive form of the singular, second-person pronoun, which is most commonly the possessive form. This pronoun follows the noun so "of yours."

missing "the"  -- (MW) The untranslated word is the Greek definite article,"the," which usually precedes a noun and, without a noun, takes the meaning of "the one." The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this," "that," "these," "those"). See this article for more. 

brother -- The word translated as "brother" means a biological brother, any kinsmen, and more broadly and friend or associate.

shall -- This helping verb "shall" indicates that the verb is the future tense. Helping or auxiliary verbs are needed to translate the Greek verb forms into English.

rise -- "Rise " is a Greek verb that means "to make to stand up," "to raise from the dead," "to rouse to action," and "to make people rise up." Though the verb meains "raise," it is in the middle voice where a person acts on themselves, so the sense is "rise."

again. -- (IW) There is nothing that can be translated as "again" in the Greek source.

EACH WORD of NIV

Your -- The word translated as "your" is the genitive form of the singular, second-person pronoun, which is most commonly the possessive form. This pronoun follows the noun so "of yours."

missing "the"  -- (MW) The untranslated word is the Greek definite article,"the," which usually precedes a noun and, without a noun, takes the meaning of "the one." The Greek article is much closer to our demonstrative pronouns ("this," "that," "these," "those"). See this article for more. 

brother -- The word translated as "brother" means a biological brother, any kinsmen, and more broadly and friend or associate.

will -- This helping verb "will " indicates that the verb is the future tense. Helping or auxiliary verbs are needed to translate the Greek verb forms into English.

rise -- "Rise " is a Greek verb that means "to make to stand up," "to raise from the dead," "to rouse to action," and "to make people rise up." Though the verb means "raise," it is in the middle voice where a person acts on themselves, so the sense is "rise."

again. -- (IW) There is nothing that can be translated as "again" in the Greek source.

COMPARISON: GREEK to KJV

Ἀναστήσεται [29 verses](verb 3rd sg fut ind mid) "Shall rise" is from anistemi, which means "to make stand up," "to raise up," "to raise from sleep," "to wake up," "to raise from the dead," "to rouse to action," "to put up for sale," "to make people rise," "to emigrate," "to transplant," and "to rise and leave the sanctuary."

[821 verses](article sg masc nom)  Untranslated is the Greek definite article, hos, ("the").  -

ἀδελφός [37 verses](noun sg masc nom) "Brother" is adelphos, which means "son of the same mother," "kinsman," "colleague," "associate," and "brother."

σου” [144 verses](pron 2nd sg gen) "Thy" is sou is the genitive form of the second-person, singular pronoun that means "of you" and "your." 

Front Page Date