λέγεις (legeis) in John 1:22: Verb Second Person Singular Present Active Indicative
λέγεις (legeis) in John 1:22
Textual Witness
The witness reads λέγεις in John 1:22 within the question, tί λέγεις περὶ σεαυτοῦ;
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form keeps the exchange personal, immediate, and report-oriented, while leaving the substance of John's reply to the surrounding context.
How To Communicate It
This form helps a reader hear the question as focused on John's own testimony, making the dialogue brisk and direct in English.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not turn person and number into theology or import more certainty than the sentence provides.
- Do not treat verb morphology as changing the lemma into another word or meaning.
What Does The Label Mean?
Verb: the form names an action or speech act, here the act of speaking or asking by saying something.
Present: often views the action as in progress, customary, or presently in view. Context decides the exact force.
Active: presents the subject as doing or carrying the action.
Indicative: presents the verbal idea as an assertion or statement in the clause.
Second person: the hearer or hearers are grammatically addressed by the verbal form.
Not applicable: this verb form is not using noun case to mark its sentence role.
Singular: the form is second person singular, marking one addressee in the direct question.
Not applicable: this verb form does not use grammatical gender to make its point.
What The Form Does In This Verse
τί
The form completes the direct question, tί legeis peri seautou;, addressing the one being questioned.
It presents the speaker's present questioning as a direct, personal inquiry about what is being said concerning oneself.
It does not by itself identify the speaker, settle the content of the answer, or add a hidden doctrinal claim.
How Much The Form Matters Here
Moderate: The second-person verb presses John to state what he says about himself.
Direct question predicate. asks for John's own statement about himself. Attached to the question what do you say about yourself. Governed by the direct address to John. The form carries the personal address, while the answer and context determine the claim.
What are they asking John to state? They ask what he says about himself.
Direct: The verb directly supports the rendering "do you say."
The present verb asks the question and should not be overread as ongoing speech habit.
Present means continuous speaking: The present form functions in a direct question; context defines the force.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads λέγεις in John 1:22 within the question, tί λέγεις περὶ σεαυτοῦ;
The lemma is λέγω, a common verb for saying or speaking, so the form concerns spoken reply or declaration.
The singular second person fits the interrogation of one man and makes the question personal and direct, without deciding more than the context states.
The grammar supports the sense, What do you say about yourself?, as the speakers ask John for a self-description they can report back.
Across the passage, the verb's ordinary sense of speaking fits the larger scene of questioning and witness without needing special nuance.
In translation or teaching, the form should be heard as a direct question to one person, not as a generic or abstract saying.
Do not derive from the present tense, active voice, or indicative mood any claim beyond the immediate act of asking what he says.