Verb – Efagon active subjunctive

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• The syntax and semantics of the interjection οὐαί
• The morphology of the Efagon active subjunctive
• The semantics of the subjunctive vs. imperative in obligations

VocabularyVocabulary

Noteοὐαί

The word οὐαί ‘woe’ expresses the displeasure of the speaker with a certain individual or group of individuals. The object of displeasure is given in the dative, normally after οὐαί, and the reason is often stated in a ὅτι-clause. Jesus’s woe statements against the Pharisees represent a classic example:

MorphologyMorphology: Verb – Efagon active subjunctive

• The Efagon act subj combines the Aorist verb stem with the Luo act subj endings (see 28.1.4.1)

SemanticsSemantics: Verb – Subjunctives (Imperatives vs. subjunctives in obligations)

The basic distinction between obligations referred to with the subjunctive and those referred to with the imperative is that the act of speaking an imperative obligates the hearer, while this is not necessarily the case for obligations expressed in the subjunctive. To illustrate, John 6:27–28 begins with Jesus commanding the people with the imperative. He says, ‘work (ἐργάζεσθε) not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for eternal life.’ In using the imperative, he obligates them to engage in that work. The people respond with the following question:

There are two subjunctives here, but we will focus on the first. The crowd is asking Jesus what they should do, or what they are obligated to do, in order to be doing God’s works. They are not placing an obligation on themselves when they utter this sentence. Jesus already obligated them to do certain works when he uttered the imperative. Rather, they are questioning what obligation they were just placed under. What exactly should they be doing in order to fulfill this obligation? Because subjunctives allow us to talk about obligations without creating them, the obligation itself can be questioned, as we see in this example. Imperatives do not allow this. They are never found in questions.

This does not mean, however, that subjunctives cannot also be used to create obligations; it just means that imperatives must be used this way. The cohortative use of the subjunctive (29.3.4.2) is an example of how the speaker can create an obligation for the addressee (as well as the speaker himself/herself).