God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2: 3
In the beginning God spoke the subject and the verb
“Many people will feel relieved seeing this scene. Imagine working for an entire month and only resting for a single day. Humans, created in the image of God, naturally should rest for about a day after working for six days, resembling God. While working hard is important, time for rest and recharge is absolutely necessary.
‘You will eat of it all the days of your life through painful toil.’ – Genesis 3:17, as the word of God says, although we must work hard to survive, the Ten Commandments, repeatedly mentioned in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, also record that if you work diligently for six days, you must certainly rest on the seventh.
‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. – Deuteronomy 5: 13-14)
It means not only we ourselves but also those who work with us, as well as animals that cannot speak, like oxen and donkeys, should all take a rest. Nevertheless, those of us living today might be working too much, just like ‘those who labor and are heavy laden.’ Therefore, the words of Jesus offering us rest sound so sweet.
‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28)”
It is said that in English, it is a principle to start every sentence with a subject. For instance, in the sentence “God blessed the seventh day,” “God” is the subject followed immediately by the verb “blessed.”
Then, in the example sentence, “On it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done,” should “on” be considered the subject? Of course not, and the subject in this sentence is “he.” While reading the Bible, one might occasionally encounter cases where a word other than the subject starts the sentence. Although various cases are taught grammatically in school, remembering all of them isn’t easy. Let’s just remember one principle as common sense.
The word you want to emphasize by placing it in the subject’s position
In English, it is possible to place the word you want to emphasize at the beginning of the sentence. This is done to capture the listener’s attention, a quite obvious reason. However, in English, just as the subject and verb go together, the verb should follow the word you wish to emphasize. Of course, the subject is expected to appear right after the verb. There are exceptions, though. For example, when the distinction between the emphasized word and the subject is clear, or when there’s a specific desire to emphasize that word alone, the original order can be maintained. However, exceptions are mostly expressions solidified by convention.
Questions and Emphasis:
Consider the following biblical passage that includes a question.
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” – Matthew 19:16-17)
What good thing must I do?” is an interrogative sentence. An interrogative sentence is an expression used to ask someone about something that one is curious about. Therefore, the interrogative word indicating curiosity is placed at the beginning. In short, it’s to emphasize the interrogative word. Following this, it can be seen that the verb comes immediately after the interrogative word. Otherwise, in the case of an interrogative sentence, instead of asking “what,” one might think it appropriate to emphasize the verb as well, as in asking “What is it?” or “What did you do?”
There and Here:
In “There is only One who is good,” the subject is “only One.” Expressions like Here is (here it is) and There is (there it is) are idiomatic, but can be considered sentences that apply the principle of simplicity.
In English dictionaries, there is a difference of opinion on whether to view “there” as an adverb or to recognize it as a pronoun. Regardless, when a word other than the subject comes at the beginning of the sentence, a verb must follow next.
On the other hand, even when a word indicating a place like “here” or “there” appears, if the subject is a pronoun, it can maintain the normal word order as the word appearing at the beginning is clearly distinguished from the subject. Expressions like “Here you are!” and “Here we go!” are examples. In fact, such expressions have become fixed as a single chunk, so it might not even be necessary to consider them exceptions.
And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the LORD even more angry with Israel. – Numbers 32:14)
Emphasizing Complements and Objects:
The following biblical verse ‘The poor in spirit is blessed’ places the adjectival complement ‘blessed’ at the front to emphasize the blessing. For now, think of a complement as a word that enhances or supplements the subject.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3)
There are also expressions that change the order of the verb and subject to emphasize negation, such as ‘do not’ or ‘will not,’ by placing the negation at the beginning.
Never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. – Genesis 8:21)
In plain English, this sentence would be ‘I will never destroy all living creatures again, as I have done.’ In both example sentences above, when words other than the subject lead the sentence, the following subject and verb switch their order. Even if the emphasized word comes at the beginning of the sentence, if the subject is clearly distinguished from it, the sentence can be expressed in the normal order according to the same logic. For example, ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’ brings ‘In the beginning’ to the front to emphasize the time at the beginning, but since the place ‘in the beginning’ and the subject ‘God’ are relatively easy to distinguish, the following sentence maintains the normal order.
To summarize, the expression in English starts with the subject followed immediately by the verb. However, if you want to emphasize something specifically, you can place that word at the beginning of the sentence. If the distinction from the subject is clear, the following sentence can maintain the normal order; if not, the order of the subject and verb is changed.
The Appearance of Various Subjects
the most important thing when reading or listening is to “find the subject.” The next task is to find the verb. However, since the verb always follows the subject directly, if the subject is identified correctly, the verb will easily reveal itself. Having found the subject and the verb, you now have understood half of English. The rest usually follows the order discussed earlier. Even if you don’t fully understand them, you can guess the order and roughly figure it out.
The problem is that the subject is not always a single word, as in “God made it holy.” Consider the subject to be nouns or things that act as nouns. Thus, pronouns, infinitives, gerunds, noun phrases, and noun clauses, through a form of disguise, all become nouns. Let’s look at a few forms of subjects.
Pronoun Subjects: Pronouns are parts of speech created to be used in place of nouns, naturally performing the role of nouns. In “He had done all the work of creating,” “He” is indeed a pronoun referring to “God” mentioned earlier.
Noun Phrase Subjects:
When two or more words come together to be used as a single part of speech, we call this group a phrase. We will discuss this topic in more detail in <While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.> Such a group becomes a noun phrase if it acts as a noun. However, it’s also fine to think that within a noun phrase, the real subject is one noun, and the rest decorate that noun. Or, a noun phrase could be considered everything together, both the noun and its decorative words. Regardless, the verb must follow the subject, so everything before the verb can be considered the subject.
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God is given to you.” -Mark 4:11
Here, the subject can be said to be the noun phrase “the mystery of the Kingdom of God,” but the true subject is “mystery.” The article “the” and “of the Kingdom of God,” meaning “God’s Kingdom,” are decorating “mystery.” Whenever you encounter a long noun acting as the subject, recognize everything up to the verb as the subject.
Infinitive Subjects: Infinitives and gerunds are important disguises that turn verbs into nouns. We will look at these two usages again later, but for now, just know that they can be turned into nouns to become subjects. An infinitive in our language corresponds to “to do something.”
“To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.” – Proverbs 8:13
Gerund Subjects: Gerunds turn verbs into nouns by adding “~ing,” which can be interpreted in our language as “doing something” or “the act of doing,” but if infinitives are closer to “to do something,” then gerunds turned into nouns by usage are closer to “the act of doing.”
“My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” John 7:16
Noun Clause Subjects: A noun clause becomes a subject when it can form a sentence on its own. A word assembly that can form a sentence in itself, having both a subject and a verb, acts as a single part of speech in a sentence, called a clause. When such a clause acts as a noun, it is a noun clause.
“Whatever the man called every living creature was its name.” – Genesis 2:19
God commanded Adam to name all the living creatures of the world. Essentially, whatever Adam called each living creature became its name. In the above passage, “the man called every living creature” itself has a subject, “the man,” and a verb, “called.” Thus, it becomes a part of the overall biblical passage, acting as a noun clause.
Sentences Without a Subject: In English, sentences are principally composed of a “subject + verb,” but in imperative sentences, exclamations, or idiomatic expressions, the subject can also be omitted. This is because imperatives have a clear target, “you.” In reality, we often make sentences by omitting the subject in our daily lives.
“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.” -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Let’s emphasize again: the verb always appears right after the subject. If the subject is not clear, think of everything before the verb as the subject
답글 남기기