Subject: God is in control of every single atom? |
Bible Note: Greetings John! It hasn't quite been 40 years for me since my last English class, but it has been longer than I care to admit! :-) Allow me to try and break this down! The only word for 'taught' in John 6:45 is in the quotation from Is. 54:13. The quote doesn't actually use a verb for 'taught' but an 'adjective. However, it can be translate as - "All will be taught by God". This is a passive voice. All is the subect, while 'will be taught' is the verbal ideal. However, the subect is not doing the 'teaching', but receiving the 'teaching' which God does. Then, John begins a new clause which literally reads - "Everyone who has heard from the Father and who has learned comes to me." This clause is in the active voice. The one who 'has heard' and 'has learned' is both the subject and the one doing the action. It is these individuals who will come to Jesus. Now, to put it all together. All are taught by God according to the quote from Is. 54:13, but not all come to Jesus. Only those who actively heard and actively learned come. Those, like the Jewish leaders, who did not listen or learn, did not come. If John had meant to say that only those who are 'taught' come, he would have only had to use the passive voice of these two verbs. The passive voice would have totally changed the meaning of this clause. But, please note, that one does not need to know Greek to determine this because the English translations are also written in the active voice rather than the passive voice. Yet, when you loosely quoted the verse, you changed to verbs to passive voice - which made sense in your theological system, but changed what the verse actually says. Allow me to use an English example of the difference. Consider the following two sentences. 1) Everyone who crosses the finish line will receive a prize. 2) Everyone who is made to cross the finish line will receive a prize. It is difficult to duplicate the exact effect in English since we do not have different forms for the various voices. However, the above examples are roughly equivalent. If John 6:45 were meant as you were reading it, it would have been formed like example number two. However, it is actually formed like example number one. I hope this helped rather than further muddied the waters! :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |