εἶναι

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 εἶναι

   EI-nai

   to be
2. sentence🔊 οὓς ὑποδέδεκται Ἰάσων καὶ οὗτοι πάντες ἀπέναντι τῶν δογμάτων Καίσαρος πράσσουσι βασιλέα ἕτερον λέγοντες εἶναι Ἰησοῦν

   hous hy-po-DE-dek-tai i-A-sōn kai HOU-toi PAN-tes a-PE-nan-ti tôn dog-MA-tōn KAI-sa-ros PRAS-sou-si ba-si-LE-a HE-te-ron LE-gon-tes EI-nai ee-ay-SOON

   whom has received Jason and these all against the decrees of Caesar are doing a king another saying to be Jesus

Exegesis

The accusative phrase basilea heteron {βασιλέα ἕτερον | ba-si-lé-a hé-te-ron} functions as the predicate accusative within the content clause introduced by the participial construction legontes einai Iesoun {λέγοντες εἶναι Ἰησοῦν | lé-gon-tes eî-nai Iē-soûn}, “saying that Jesus is another king.”

Here einai {εἶναι | eî-nai} takes Iesoun {Ἰησοῦν | Iē-soûn} as its subject accusative and basilea heteron as its predicate accusative, clearly identifying Jesus with the rival kingship that supposedly violates Caesar’s supremacy. In the formal reconstruction, the relative clause is preserved at the front to mirror Greek syntax and maintain the forensic feel of the accusation, while lexical choices such as “decrees” and “are acting” retain the legal and durative nuances. In the dynamic reconstruction, the implied object of hous is made explicit as “them,” and prassousi plus apenanti ton dogmaton is rendered as “are breaking Caesar’s laws” to communicate more directly the notion of legal transgression in contemporary language, while still preserving the core structure of a charge that centers on the competing claims of Jesus and Caesar as king.