ἐλθεῖν

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 ἐλθεῖν

   el-THEIN

   to come
2. sentence🔊 Εἶπεν οὖν πάλιν αὐτοῖς Ἐγὼ ὑπάγω καὶ ζητήσετέ με καὶ ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ὑμῶν ἀποθανεῖσθε ὅπου ἐγὼ ὑπάγω ὑμεῖς οὐ δύνασθε ἐλθεῖν

   EI-pen OUN PA-lin au-TOIS e-GÔ hy-PA-gō KAI dzê-TÊ-se-TE me KAI en têi ha-mar-TI-ai hy-MÔN a-po-tha-NEIS-the HO-pou e-GÔ hy-PA-gō hy-MEIS ou DY-nas-the el-THEIN

   he said therefore again to them I I am going and you will seek me and in the sin of you you will die where I I am going you not you are able to come

Exegesis

The clause hopou ego hupago {ὅπου ἐγὼ ὑπάγω | hó-pou e-gṓ hy-pá-gō} is a relative clause of place (“where I am going”), again with fronted ego for emphasis, and it governs the main clause humeis ou dunasthe elthein {ὑμεῖς οὐ δύνασθε ἐλθεῖν | hy-meîs ou dý-na-sthe el-theîn} ‘you are not able to come.’ Here humeis is also emphatic, setting a sharp contrast between “I” and “you.” The negation ou directly precedes dunasthe to stress impossibility rather than mere unwillingness. This syntactic contrast (ego … humeis) and the shift from present (hupago, dunasthe) to future (zētēsete, apothaneisthe) produce a solemn progression: His impending departure, their future search, their death within the sphere of sin, and their ongoing inability to follow Him. The English renderings preserve these contrasts by mirroring the clause order (“Where I am going, you are not able to come”) and by differentiating present and future verbs to maintain the temporal and theological weight of the warning.