| 3. Linguistic Exegesis The initial warning clause uses the present imperative prosechete {προσέχετε | prosékhete} ‘pay attention’ together with the reflexive pronoun heautois {ἑαυτοῖς | hēautoîs} ‘to yourselves,’ creating an opening admonition that places responsibility on the community to be watchful. This is followed by a pair of conditional constructions introduced by the particle ean {ἐὰν | eán} ‘if,’ each consisting of a protasis with an aorist subjunctive and an apodosis with an aorist imperative. The first protasis, ean hamarte ho adelphos sou {ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ ὁ ἀδελφός σου | eán hamártē ho adelphós sou} ‘if your brother should sin,’ presents a potential but undefined act of sin. Its corresponding apodosis, epitimeson auto {ἐπιτίμησον αὐτῷ | epitímēson autō} ‘rebuke him,’ commands a decisive corrective response, with the dative auto marking the person who receives the rebuke. The second protasis, kai ean metanoese {καὶ ἐὰν μετανοήσῃ | kaì eán metanoḗsē} ‘and if he should repent,’ introduces an additional contingent action that conditions the response in the final apodosis. That apodosis, aphes auto {ἄφες αὐτῷ | áphes autō} ‘forgive him,’ uses another aorist imperative to call for a definite, conclusive act of forgiveness. The parallel structure of the two ean-clauses binds confrontation and forgiveness together, and the translation maintains this balance through coordinated clauses and imperative verbs that mirror the Greek sequence. |