KJV: A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
YLT: 'The woman, when she may bear, hath sorrow, because her hour did come, and when she may bear the child, no more doth she remember the anguish, because of the joy that a man was born to the world.
Darby: A woman, when she gives birth to a child, has grief because her hour has come; but when the child is born, she no longer remembers the trouble, on account of the joy that a man has been born into the world.
ASV: A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world.
| γυνὴ | woman |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: γυνή Sense: a woman of any age, whether a virgin, or married, or a widow. |
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| τίκτῃ | she is giving birth |
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Parse: Verb, Present Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: τίκτω Sense: to bring forth, bear, produce (fruit from the seed). |
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| λύπην | pain |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: λύπη Sense: sorrow, pain, grief, annoyance, affliction. |
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| ὅτι | because |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: ὅτι Sense: that, because, since. |
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| ἦλθεν | has come |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: ἔρχομαι Sense: to come. |
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| ὥρα | hour |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Feminine Singular Root: ὥρα Sense: a certain definite time or season fixed by natural law and returning with the revolving year. |
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| αὐτῆς | of her |
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Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive Feminine 3rd Person Singular Root: αὐτός Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself. |
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| δὲ | however |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: δέ Sense: but, moreover, and, etc. |
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| γεννήσῃ | she brings forth |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: γεννάω Sense: of men who fathered children. |
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| παιδίον | child |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Singular Root: παιδίον Sense: a young child, a little boy, a little girl. |
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| οὐκέτι | no longer |
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Parse: Adverb Root: οὐκέτι Sense: no longer, no more, no further. |
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| μνημονεύει | she remembers |
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Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular Root: μνημονεύω Sense: to be mindful of, to remember, to call to mind. |
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| θλίψεως | tribulation |
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Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular Root: θλῖψις Sense: a pressing, pressing together, pressure. |
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| διὰ | on account of |
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Parse: Preposition Root: διά Sense: through. |
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| χαρὰν | joy |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular Root: χαρά Sense: joy, gladness. |
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| ὅτι | that |
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Parse: Conjunction Root: ὅτι Sense: that, because, since. |
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| ἐγεννήθη | has been born |
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Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Passive, 3rd Person Singular Root: γεννάω Sense: of men who fathered children. |
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| ἄνθρωπος | a man |
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Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Singular Root: ἄνθρωπος Sense: a human being, whether male or female. |
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| εἰς | into |
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Parse: Preposition Root: εἰς Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among. |
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| κόσμον | world |
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Parse: Noun, Accusative Masculine Singular Root: κόσμος Sense: an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government. |
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Greek Commentary for John 16:21
“The woman,” any woman. When she is in travail Indefinite temporal clause, “whenever she is about to bear (or give birth),” οταν hotan and present active subjunctive of τικτω tiktō common O.T. image for pain. Her hour is come Second aorist active indicative, timeless aorist, “her hour” for giving birth which she knows is like a living death. But when she is delivered of the child Indefinite temporal clause with οταν hotan and first aorist active subjunctive of γενναω gennaō “But whenever she bears the child.” The anguish Genitive case after μνημονευει mnēmoneuei of τλιπσις thlipsis usual word for tribulation (Matthew 13:21). Is born First aorist (effective) passive indicative of γενναω gennaō f0). [source]
Literally, the woman. The generic article marking the woman as representing her sex: woman as such. [source]
A common Old Testament image of sorrow issuing in joy. See Isaiah 21:3; Isaiah 26:17; Isaiah 66:7; Hosea 13:13; Micah 4:9, Micah 4:10. [source]
Commonly rendered affliction or tribulation in A.V. See on Matthew 13:21. [source]
Properly, the joy which answers to the anguish. [source]
See on John 1:30. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 16:21
As in John 1:3, the creation was designated in its several details by πάντα , all things, so here, creation is regarded in its totality, as an ordered whole. See on Acts 17:24; see on James 3:6. Four words are used in the New Testament for world: (1) γῇ , land, ground, territory, the earth, as distinguished from the heavens. The sense is purely physical. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- (2) οἰκουμένη , which is a participle, meaning inhabited, with γῆ , earth, understood, and signifies the earth as the abode of men; the whole inhabited world. See on Matthew 24:14; see on Luke 2:1. Also in a physical sense, though used once of “the world to come” (Hebrews 2:5). -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- (3) αἰών , essentially time, as the condition under which all created things exist, and the measure of their existence: a period of existence; a lifetime; a generation; hence, a long space of time; an age, era, epoch, period of a dispensation. On this primary, physical sense there arises a secondary sense, viz., all that exists in the world under the conditions of time. From this again develops a more distinctly ethical sense, the course and current of this world's affairs (compare the expression, the times ), and this course as corrupted by sin; hence the evil world. So Galatians 1:4; 2 Corinthians 4:4. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- (4) κόσμος , which follows a similar line of development from the physical to the ethical sense; meaning (a) ornament, arrangement, order (1 Peter 3:3); (b) the sum-total of the material universe considered as a system (Matthew 13:35; John 17:5; Acts 17:24; Philemon 2:15). Compare Plato. “He who is incapable of communion is also incapable of friendship. And philosophers tell us, Callicles, that communion and friendship and orderliness and temperance and justice bind together heaven and earth and gods and men, and that this universe is therefore called Cosmos, or order, not disorder or misrule” (“Gorgias,” 508). (c) That universe as the abode of man (John 16:21; 1 John 3:17). (d) The sum-total of humanity in the world; the human race (John 1:29; John 4:42). (e) In the ethical sense, the sum-total of human life in the ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God (John 7:7; John 15:18; John 17:9, John 17:14; 1 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Corinthians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 7:10; James 4:4). -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- This word is characteristic of John, and pre-eminently in this last, ethical sense, in which it is rarely used by the Synoptists; while John nowhere uses αἰών of the moral order. In this latter sense the word is wholly strange to heathen literature, since the heathen world had no perception of the opposition between God and sinful man; between the divine order and the moral disorder introduced and maintained by sin. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- [source]
Three words are used in the New Testament for man: ἄῤῥην , or ἄρσην , ἀνήρ , and ἄνθρωπος . Ἄρσην marks merely the sexual distinction, male (Romans 1:27; Revelation 12:5, Revelation 12:13). Ἁνήρ denotes the man as distinguished from the woman, as male or as a husband (Acts 8:12; Matthew 1:16), or from a boy (Matthew 14:21). Also man as endowed with courage, intelligence, strength, and other noble attributes (1 Corinthians 13:11; Ephesians 4:13; James 3:2). Ἄνθρωπος is generic, without distinction of sex, a human being (John 16:21), though often used in connections which indicate or imply sex, as Matthew 19:10; Matthew 10:35. Used of mankind (Matthew 4:4), or of the people (Matthew 5:13, Matthew 5:16; Matthew 6:5, Matthew 6:18; John 6:10). Of man as distinguished from animals or plants (Matthew 4:19; 2 Peter 2:16), and from God, Christ as divine and angels (Matthew 10:32; John 10:33; Luke 2:15). With the notion of weakness leading to sin, and with a contemptuous sense (1 Corinthians 2:5; 1 Peter 4:2; John 5:12; Romans 9:20). The more honorable and noble sense thus attaches to ἀνήρ rather than to ἄνθρωπος . Thus Herodotus says that when the Medes charged the Greeks, they fell in vast numbers, so that it was manifest to Xerxes that he had many men combatants ( ἄνθρωποι ) but few warriors ( ἄνθρωποι ) vii., 210. So Homer: “O friends, be men ( ἀνέρες ), and take on a stout heart” (“Iliad,” v., 529). Ἁνήρ is therefore used here of Jesus by the Baptist with a sense of dignity. Compare ἄνθρωπος , in John 1:6, where the word implies no disparagement, but is simply indefinite. In John ἀνήρ has mostly the sense of husband (John 4:16-18). See John 6:10. -DIVIDER- -DIVIDER- [source]
Present active imperative of μνημονευω mnēmoneuō old verb from μνημων mnēmōn in John again in John 16:4, John 16:21. See John 13:16 for this word. If they persecuted me Condition of first class. They certainly did persecute (first aorist active of διωκω diōkō to chase like a wild beast like the Latin persequor, our “persecute”) Jesus (John 5:16). They will persecute those like Jesus. Cf. John 16:33; Mark 10:30; Luke 21:12; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 2 Corinthians 4:9; Galatians 4:29; 2 Timothy 3:12 for proof that this prophecy came true. But the alternative is true and is stated by Jesus with a like condition of the first class, “if they kept my word” The world does praise the word of Jesus, but dreads to follow it. [source]
Originally, order, and hence the order of the world; the ordered universe. So in classical Greek. In the Septuagint, never the world, but the ordered total of the heavenly bodies; the host of heaven (17:3; Isaiah 24:21; 40:26). Compare, also, Proverbs href="/desk/?q=pr+17:6&sr=1">Proverbs 17:6, and see note on James 3:6. In the apocryphal books, of the universe, and mainly in the relation between God and it arising out of the creation. Thus, the king of the world (2 Maccabees 7:9); the creator or founder of the world (2 Maccabees 12:15). In the New Testament: 1. In the classical and physical sense, the universe (John href="/desk/?q=joh+17:5&sr=1">John 17:5; John 21:25.; Romans 1:20; Ephesians 1:4, etc.). 2. As the order of things of which man is the centre (Matthew 13:38; Mark 16:15; Luke 9:25; John 16:21; Ephesians 2:12; 1 Timothy 6:7). 3. Humanity as it manifests itself in and through this order (Matthew 18:7; 2 Peter 2:5; 2 Peter 3:6; Romans 3:19). Then, as sin has entered and disturbed the order of things, and made a breach between the heavenly and the earthly order, which are one in the divine ideal - 4. The order of things which is alienated from God, as manifested in and by the human race: humanity as alienated from God, and acting in opposition to him (John 1:10; John 12:31; John 15:18, John 15:19; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 1 John 2:15, etc.). The word is used here in the classical sense of the visible creation, which would appeal to the Athenians. Stanley, speaking of the name by which the Deity is known in the patriarchal age, the plural Elohim, notes that Abraham, in perceiving that all the Elohim worshipped by the numerous clans of his race meant one God, anticipated the declaration of Paul in this passage (“Jewish Church,” i., 25). Paul's statement strikes at the belief of the Epicureans, that the world was made by “a fortuitous concourse of atoms,” and of the Stoics, who denied the creation of the world by God, holding either that God animated the world, or that the world itself was God. [source]
Lit., a son, a male. The correct reading is ἄρσεν , the neuter, not agreeing with the masculine individual ( υἱὸν son) but with the neuter of the genus. The object is to emphasize, not the sex, but the peculiar qualities of masculinity - power and vigor. Rev., a son, a man-child. Compare John 16:21; Jeremiah 20:15. [source]
Lit., being tormented. See on Revelation 11:10, and references. For the imagery compare Isaiah 66:7, Isaiah 66:8; John 16:21. [source]
Nominative case in apposition with σημειον sēmeion “The first ‹sign in heaven‘ is a Woman - the earliest appearance of a female figure in the Apocalyptic vision” (Swete).Arrayed with the sun (περιβεβλημενη τον ηλιον peribeblēmenē ton hēlion). Perfect passive participle of περιβαλλω periballō with the accusative retained as so often (9 times) in the Apocalypse. Both Charles and Moffatt see mythological ideas and sources behind the bold imagery here that leave us all at sea. Swete understands the Woman to be “the church of the Old Testament” as “the Mother of whom Christ came after the flesh. But here, as everywhere in the Book, no sharp dividing line is drawn between the Church of the Old Testament and the Christian Society.” Certainly she is not the Virgin Mary, as Revelation 12:17 makes clear. Beckwith takes her to be “the heavenly representative of the people of God, the ideal Zion, which, so far as it is embodied in concrete realities, is represented alike by the people of the Old and the New Covenants.” John may have in mind Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:31) as well as Micah 4:10; Isaiah 26:17.; Isaiah 66:7 without a definite picture of Mary. The metaphor of childbirth is common enough (John 16:21; Galatians 4:19). The figure is a bold one with the moon “under her feet” (υποκατω των ποδων αυτης hupokatō tōn podōn autēs) and “a crown of twelve stars” (στεπανος αστερων δωδεκα stephanos asterōn dōdeka), a possible allusion to the twelve tribes (James 1:1; Revelation 21:12) or to the twelve apostles (Revelation 21:14). [source]
Perfect passive participle of περιβαλλω periballō with the accusative retained as so often (9 times) in the Apocalypse. Both Charles and Moffatt see mythological ideas and sources behind the bold imagery here that leave us all at sea. Swete understands the Woman to be “the church of the Old Testament” as “the Mother of whom Christ came after the flesh. But here, as everywhere in the Book, no sharp dividing line is drawn between the Church of the Old Testament and the Christian Society.” Certainly she is not the Virgin Mary, as Revelation 12:17 makes clear. Beckwith takes her to be “the heavenly representative of the people of God, the ideal Zion, which, so far as it is embodied in concrete realities, is represented alike by the people of the Old and the New Covenants.” John may have in mind Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:31) as well as Micah 4:10; Isaiah 26:17.; Isaiah 66:7 without a definite picture of Mary. The metaphor of childbirth is common enough (John 16:21; Galatians 4:19). The figure is a bold one with the moon “under her feet” (υποκατω των ποδων αυτης hupokatō tōn podōn autēs) and “a crown of twelve stars” (στεπανος αστερων δωδεκα stephanos asterōn dōdeka), a possible allusion to the twelve tribes (James 1:1; Revelation 21:12) or to the twelve apostles (Revelation 21:14). [source]