| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse consists of two coordinated future statements describing signs accompanying believers, with a series of future indicative verbs: arousin {ἀροῦσιν | a-roû-sin} ‘they will pick up’, epithēsousin {ἐπιθήσουσιν | e-pi-thḗ-sou-sin} ‘they will lay’, and hexousin {ἕξουσιν | hé-xou-sin} ‘they will be (well)’. Between these, a conditional-hypothetical clause is introduced by kan {κἂν | kan} ‘and if’, formed from crasis of kai and ean, followed by the aorist subjunctive piōsin {πίωσιν | pí-ō-sin} ‘they might drink’ and the emphatic negation ou mē {οὐ μὴ | ou mḕ}. This ou mē construction with the aorist subjunctive blapsē {βλάψῃ | bláp-sē} ‘it might harm’ expresses a strongly negated potential action: “it will certainly not harm them.” The object of the hypothetical drinking, thanasimon ti {θανάσιμόν τι | tha-ná-si-mon ti}, places “anything deadly” before the verb for emphasis on the danger contrasted with divine protection. The prepositional phrase epi arrostous {ἐπὶ ἀρρώστους | e-pì ar-rṓs-tous} ‘upon sick ones’ highlights physical contact, which is further specified by the direct object kheiras {χεῖρας | kheî-ras} ‘hands’ governed by epithēsousin {ἐπιθήσουσιν | e-pi-thḗ-sou-sin}. The adverb kalōs {καλῶς | ka-lôs} functions as a predicate complement with hexousin {ἕξουσιν | hé-xou-sin}, yielding the sense “they will be well.” In translation, the future indicatives are maintained as futures to preserve the promissory tone, while kan is rendered “and if” or “even if” to communicate the concessive nuance of a hypothetical but real danger. The emphatic ou mē construction is captured with phrases like “by no means” or “not … at all,” and the word order is slightly adjusted to achieve natural English while keeping the two main future result clauses clearly parallel. |