Matthew 14:18 — ExegesisTAB

The sentence begins with ho de eipen {ὁ δὲ εἶπεν | ho de eî-pen}, where ho is a narrative subject marker referring back to Jesus in the context, and de is a postpositive conjunction that here has a mildly continuative sense, well rendered as “but” or “then” to show the next step in the scene. The aorist verb eipen presents a simple, completed speech act, a typical narrative backbone verb in the Gospels. The imperative pherete {φέρετε | fé-re-te} is second person plural, addressing more than one disciple and functioning as a direct command. The dative moi {μοι | moi} marks Jesus as the recipient of the action, while the adverb hode {ὧδε | hô-de} “here” precedes the object pronoun autous {αὐτούς | au-toús} “them,” slightly foregrounding the location (“right here, to Me”) before identifying the objects. In English, the more natural order places “them” before “here,” but the translation maintains the sense of immediacy by retaining “here” close to “Me.” The structure as a whole remains a single main clause with quoted direct speech, mirroring the straightforward imperative command in Greek.