Visual Filter for Greek Imperatives

Hello community,

Let me start by saying that I do not know Greek and grammar has never been my strong suit. But knowing what the Bible says is an imperative (pun intended) for me and so here I am.

Background: Someone recently told me that the Bible rarely use language that conveys emphatic and directive force like, for example, our English phrase "you should". I find that hard to believe. Bible translations differ, of course. But rather than arguing over it, I thought I'd see how the Bible in the original languages conveys commands, instructions, and other directives. I want to make up my own mind as to how often, how emphatic, how forceful, and in what tone it does this.

I was able to build a simple visual filter like this one "morph.g:V??M". Instantly I started seeing these imperatives in my Bibles. I started scrolling through the NT and when I came to Matt 2:20 and I noticed this:

The LEB version of verse 20 clearly translates "get up" in a way to directs Joseph to do something. The NLT even adds an exclamation mark after "up". But my visual filter did not capture this like it did "behold", "take", and "go". These latter ones appearing to be less emphatic than the NLTs "Get up!"

With help from the study assistant I found out that "the Greek text in Matthew 2:20 actually does contain imperative force, though not in the form you might expect. The construction pairs a participle with an imperative verb, but this structure functions as the equivalent of two imperatives . . . The participle-plus-imperative construction in Matthew 2:20 thus represents one of several grammatical mechanisms Greek employed to express mandatory instructions . . ."

I have not been able to figure out how to build a visual filter that finds this and other more complex constructions that convey directives and instructions. Does anyone know if this is possible with the visual filters in Logos Pro? If so, how do you do it? Please keep in mind I don't know the first thing about Biblical Greek. :-)

Thank you and God bless,

Ed.

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John Fidel

There is a command data set. You can find the manual in your library.

You can search for commands as shown below. I searched for all commands using the*, however you can be more specific as described in the manual. The search below if limited to Matt, but shows the entire phrase in 2:20 as a command. This may be what you are looking for.

John Fidel

For a specific explanation of the verse in question the UBSH series is a good source if you have it.

Matthew 2:20

The command to return to Palestine parallels exactly the command to leave in verse 13.

Rise, take translates a participle followed by an imperative. However, the structure is the equivalent of two imperatives, and almost all translations render in it this way.

For suggestions on translating Rise, take the child and his mother, see comments on verse 13. Other suggestions are “Get up and go with the child and his mother to the land of Israel” or “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go with them to the land of Israel.”

Newman, Barclay Moon, and Philip C. Stine. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies, 1992.

Ed Ratzlaff

Thank you @John Fidel . Your first response is very helpful and gets to the heart of the matter. Looks like I was doing things the hard way. And yes, I do have the UBSH of Matthew and that is in part why I posted the question the way I did. There still is a lot I don't know about how to use Logos . . . :-)

Thanks again and God bless.