Untitled Sermon

John 8:31 ESV

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

Therefore Jesus said to the having-believed-and-yet-believing-upon-Him-Jews, “If you all remain in my words, truly disciples of me you are.

I wonder . . . is there a translational/grammatical distinction in the use of the dative “the words the mine” and the genitive possessive use I typically would see?

And also note well that “truly” is an adverb. As I read the ESV, my first thought is to interpret it as “you are my TRUE disciples.” But no, as an adverb, it’s “truly you ARE my disciples.”

The distinction between the two readings is that the adjectival reading emphasizes the measure to which we are disciples (and the strong indication that you’d better dang well be remaining in the Word if’n you want to be a TRUE disciple) and the adverbial recognizes that the Word is the means by which we are made disciples. The latter, I believe is more comforting, for it answers the question, “Am I TRULY His disciple?” with the answer, “Do you believe upon the Word?”

There’s going to be an emphasis on “remaining” in the word. Now, that’s subjunctive. What type of condition is it?

It’s not an if-then. There’s no “then” condition. But again, that sort of if/then would reflect an adjectival usage of “truly.” So that’s already out.

It’s not something contrary to fact.

Will need to look it up in Wallace.

Okay, so Wallace claims it as a 3rd Class Conditional Sentence.

Simply meaning that there is some uncertainty. Not necessarily in the sense of time (as in , “If, in the future, any of you would happen to abide . . .”), nor in the sense of uncertainty of outcome (c.f. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive . . .”, in which the outcome is certain), but there is uncertainty about just who may be the “you.”

To get the implied meaning across, we could insert an “anyone”: “If anyone among you abides in my word, you are truly my disciple.”