"If": The Various Conditions
Conveyed By Its Use This Is Appendix
118 From The Companion Bible.
- ean = if haply, if so be that, from
ei (No. 2) and an, haply, perchance. The
exact condition is shown by the Mood of the verb with
which it is used :
- Followed by the Indicative Mood (with the
Present Tense), it expresses the condition simply; without any
reference to its being decisive by experience, or by the event, as in
1John
5:15, elsewhere,
and in the Papyri.
- Followed by the Subjunctive Mood, it expresses a
hypothetical but possible condition, contingent on circumstances which
the future will show (John 7:17).
- ei = if. Putting the condition simply.
- Followed by the Indicative Mood, the hypothesis
is assumed as an actual fact, the condition being unfulfilled, but no
doubt being thrown upon the supposition (1Corinthians
15:16).
- Followed by the Optative Mood, it expresses an
entire uncertainty; a mere assumption or conjecture of a supposed case
(Acts 17:27. 1Peter
3:14).
- Followed by the Subjunctive Mood, like No. 1. b;
except that this puts the condition with more certainty, and as being
more dependent on the event (1Corinthians
14:5).
For two illustrations, see Acts 5:38, 39. "If this
counsel or this work be of men (1. b, a result which remains to be seen)
... but if it is of God (1. a, which I assume to be the case)",
etc.
John 13: 17. "If ye
know these things (2. a, which I assume to be the fact) happy are ye if
ye do them (1. b, a result which remains to be seen)".
Note four "ifs" in Colossian's,
"if ye died with Christ" (2: 20); and "if
ye were raised with Christ" (3:1), both of which
are No. 2 a (assuming the fact to be true); "if any man have a
quarrel" (3:13); "if he
come to you" (4:10), both of which
are No. 1. b, being uncertainties.
One other "if" in Colossians is
1: 23 : "If ye
continue in the faith" (eige = if indeed, a form of
2. a), which ye will assuredly do.
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