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Discourse Matters: Jesus, you’re so clever with your words(ing) (John 4:17)

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by Kris (with a “K”)

16        Λέγει αὐτῇ· Ὕπαγε φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε.

17        ἀπεκρίθη ἡ γυνὴ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα. λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Καλῶς εἶπας ὅτι Ἄνδρα οὐκ ἔχω·

18        πέντε γὰρ ἄνδρας ἔσχες, καὶ νῦν ὃν ἔχεις οὐκ ἔστιν σου ἀνήρ· τοῦτο ἀληθὲς εἴρηκας. (SBLGNT)

16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”

17 The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have said rightly, ‘I do not have a husband,’

18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you have now is not your husband; this you have said truthfully!” (LEB)

The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is a prime example of how two people can say the exact same thing, but mean something completely different. In verse 16, Jesus tells the woman to do something.

16 Λέγει αὐτῇ· Ὕπαγε φώνησον τὸν ἄνδρα σου καὶ ἐλθὲ ἐνθάδε.

But the woman responds:

17 …Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα

In Jesus’ instruction, he discloses an assumption that the woman has a husband. (He of course knows the full story, but she doesn’t yet know this). But because this is not true, the woman corrects him.

Her assertion—that she has no husband—follows the ordinary word order of sentences in Greek (verb first). As such, there is nothing unusual about the way the sentence is articulated. But we cannot say the same for Jesus’ response:

17 …Καλῶς εἶπας ὅτι Ἄνδρα οὐκ ἔχω·

Notice that Jesus re-arranges the word order of what the woman originally said. He says ἄνδρα (husband) before οὐκ ἔχω (I do not have), whereas the Samaritan woman had the order reversed. Remember, her arrangement reflects the normal ordering; thus Jesus’ arrangement is considered marked (i.e., not unmarked/default). Because of this, even though Jesus repeats the exact same words as the woman, he inevitably means something different.

While those who have heard the story know from the unfolding narrative that she was being only partially truthful, and actually has multiple husbands, we are slow to pick up on this reality that would have readily been hinted at in verse 17 with the marked word order. Instead, we tend to fill in the story after the explicit mention of five husbands in the following verse. But the point remains, in Greek, you don’t have to wait until verse 18 to find out that something is up—that something is off in the Samaritan woman’s claim. The altered word ordering of the woman’s claim does more than just repeat what she said—contrary to what may be suggested by an identically constructed English translation.

  • the woman said, “I do not have a husband” (Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα)
  • Jesus said, “You have said rightly, ‘I do not have a husband’” (Ἄνδρα οὐκ ἔχω)

By fronting ἄνδρα (husband) before the main verb Jesus draws more attention to this piece of information than would otherwise have been the case had it followed the verb. (In English we can accomplish a similar function through stressed intonation.) The specific effect achieved by the fronted information is determined by the context.

In this case, Jesus is able to draw more attention to a particular aspect of the Samaritan woman’s claim, namely that she does not have a (single) husband. Even though the woman probably did not mean to imply (or leave open the fact) that she has multiple husbands with the words Οὐκ ἔχω ἄνδρα, Jesus knows better and so exploits the ambiguity in her response by re-configuring the information structure. And yet, even if the emphasis placed on ἄνδρα (husband) doesn’t fully make sense at this point (to the woman or the reader), it primes a situation where Jesus is able to affirm with equal force that it’s not one but five husbands that she has. For just as Jesus fronted ἄνδρα (husband) in verse 17, so he fronts πέντε ἄνδρας (five husbands) in verse 18. The attention drawn to the singular ἄνδρα (husband) thus functions as a foil for the plural mention in the next verse. In a similar manner, we might make the same point in English with raised intonation: You don’t have A HUSBAND—you’ve got FIVE!

Though you probably knew before reading this post that it’s not what you say but how you say it that matters, now you should have a better understanding of how this principle can get fleshed out in Greek—even when the exact same words are repeated.

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Filed under: Discourse Grammar, For the Well Acquainted, Greek, Information Structure, Linguistics, Series, Translation Tagged: emphasis, focus, Information Structure, John 4:17, marked focus

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