αὐτὴν (auten) in Matthew 1:25: Accusative Singular Feminine
αὐτὴν (auten) in Matthew 1:25
Textual Witness
The witness reads αὐτὴν in Matthew 1:25 within the clause καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἕως οὗ ἔτεκε.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The form clarifies who is meant in the object position and helps the verse communicate a restrained, narrative report of Joseph's conduct.
How To Communicate It
In translation and explanation, the pronoun should be rendered according to the context as 'her' or an equivalent reference to the woman already in view.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- The feminine form indicates grammatical gender, not a theological statement about gender.
- When syntax is clear enough, state only the relation the clause supports and avoid overclaiming from morphology alone.
What Does The Label Mean?
Pronoun: the word stands in place of a noun phrase and points to a referent already active in the sentence.
Accusative: the form usually marks a direct object or another accusative relation, and here it fits the person whom the verb takes as its object.
Singular: the form is grammatically singular in this occurrence, so it points to one referent in the clause.
Feminine: the form is in the feminine grammatical class here, which matches the referent in context and does not by itself make a theological claim.
What The Form Does In This Verse
ἐγίνωσκεν
The pronoun is governed by the verb ἐγίνωσκεν and functions as its direct object in the statement that Joseph did not know her.
It identifies the one affected by the action of the verb and helps specify the relational statement in the verse.
It is not the subject of the clause, and the case alone does not settle wider interpretive questions beyond this object relation.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The pronoun identifies the woman in a sensitive relational statement about Joseph's conduct.
Accusative direct object pronoun. identifies the person who is the object of the verb. Attached to the verb in the statement that Joseph did not know her. Governed by the verb of knowing. The form clarifies reference, while the verb and narrative context supply the relational meaning.
Whom did Joseph not know in this statement? The pronoun points to Mary as the direct object of the verb.
Direct: The object relation directly supports rendering the pronoun as 'her.'
The relational meaning comes from the verb and context, not from the pronoun's gender or case alone.
Pronoun case settles broader marital theology: The pronoun marks object reference; wider claims must be drawn from the passage context.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads αὐτὴν in Matthew 1:25 within the clause καὶ οὐκ ἐγίνωσκεν αὐτὴν ἕως οὗ ἔτεκε.
The lemma αὐτός is a flexible pronoun that can refer back to a previously mentioned person or thing, and here the feminine singular form points back to the female referent in context.
The accusative form fits the verb as object and makes the sentence read as a statement about Joseph's non-knowledge of her before the birth described in the next clause.
In this verse the grammar supports a simple relational reading: Joseph did not have marital relations with her until the birth event described.
The form supports the immediate narrative flow by keeping attention on the woman, the birth, and the naming of the child without adding more than the clause states.
For readers and teachers, the pronoun helps keep the sentence concrete and continuous, linking the first clause to the birth that follows.
Do not derive more from the accusative form than the clause can bear, and do not use grammatical gender to make a theological claim about the person.