| 22. Linguistic Exegesis The verse employs the historical present legei {λέγει | lé-gei} to vividly frame the dialogue, followed by the dative pronoun autō {αὐτῷ | au-tô} marking the indirect object and then the explicit subject ho Iesous {ὁ Ἰησοῦς | ho Iē-soûs}, producing a verb–indirect object–subject sequence that keeps focus on the act of speaking before naming the speaker. The direct discourse is introduced with the negated clause Ou legō soi {Οὐ λέγω σοι | Ou lé-gō soi}, where the negative particle Ou stands before the verb for emphasis and the dative soi specifies the addressee. The preposition-like conjunction heōs {ἕως | hé-ōs} governs the adverbial numeral heptakis {ἑπτάκις | hep-tá-kis}, forming the phrase “up to seven times,” which sets an initial, apparently generous limit. The adversative alla {ἀλλὰ | al-lá} introduces a strong contrast, followed by a parallel construction heōs hebdomēkontakis hepta {ἕως ἑβδομηκοντάκις ἑπτά | hé-ōs heb-do-mē-kon-TÁ-kis hep-TÁ}, literally “up to seventy times seven.” The stacking of the numeral adverb hebdomēkontakis with the cardinal hepta creates a hyperbolic expression of limitless repetition rather than a precise arithmetic requirement. In translation, the Greek clausal structure “I do not say to you … but …” is retained to preserve the emphatic correction, while English word order is adjusted to standard subject–verb–object, and the idiomatic “seventy times seven” is kept to convey the rhetorical escalation of forgiveness. |