ἀφῆκε (apheken) in Matthew 27:50: Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ἀφῆκε (apheken) in Matthew 27:50
Textual Witness
The witness reads ἀφῆκε in Matthew 27:50.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
The active predicate reports Jesus' death as the release or giving up of the spirit.
How To Communicate It
Use this form to explain why the object controls the sense of ἀφῆκε in this occurrence.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not import every possible sense of the lemma into this occurrence.
- Do not detach the verb from its object, the spirit.
- Do not make aorist aspect carry the whole theology of Jesus' death.
What Does The Label Mean?
Verb: the form names an action or state and functions as a finite verbal form in its clause.
Aorist: commonly views the action as a whole event. It should not be treated as automatically punctiliar or automatically past in every context.
Active: presents Jesus as the grammatical subject carrying out the action.
Indicative: presents the verbal idea as an assertion in the clause.
Third person: the form speaks about Jesus rather than directly addressing the hearers.
Not applicable: this finite verb form is not using noun case to mark its clause role.
Singular: the verb agrees with Jesus as the singular subject.
Not applicable: this finite verb form does not use grammatical gender.
What The Form Does In This Verse
τὸ πνεῦμα
The verb is the finite predicate in Matthew's report of Jesus' death.
It reports Jesus giving up the spirit after crying out again.
It does not by itself explain every theological dimension of Jesus' death or the nature of spirit.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: The verb reports Jesus giving up the spirit in the death scene.
Predicate with the spirit as object. reports Jesus giving up the spirit. Attached to τὸ πνεῦμα. Governed by Matthew 27:50. The object controls the sense of the verb in this occurrence.
What does Jesus do in Matthew's death report? He gives up the spirit.
Direct: The form directly supports a rendering such as "gave up" in this object context.
The lemma has a broad range, but τὸ πνεῦμα governs this occurrence's sense.
Lexeme range means forgive here: The object the spirit controls the occurrence, so this context is about giving up the spirit.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
The witness reads ἀφῆκε in Matthew 27:50.
The lemma ἀφίημι can mean send away, release, permit, or forgive; here the object τὸ πνεῦμα controls the sense of giving up or releasing.
The active verb takes τὸ πνεῦμα as its object, so the clause reports Jesus giving up the spirit.
Matthew reports Jesus' death after his loud cry.
The form belongs to the passion narrative's account of Jesus' voluntary death and the signs that follow.
In teaching, let the object τὸ πνεῦμα determine the sense instead of importing another use of ἀφίημι such as forgive.
Do not turn the lexeme's broader range into a claim that this occurrence means forgiveness rather than giving up the spirit.