# 'The impossible we do overnight ...' IN BIBLICAL GREEK



## edwardtheconfessor

HI
Anyone out there know BIBLICAL GREEK (a.k.a KOINE or 'bastardised' (NEW TESTAMENT) GREEK)?? [NOT ANCIENT GREEK, NOT MODERN GREEK] ....

'The impossible we do overnight; miracles take a bit longer'

('we' means 'you and I'. 'overnight' can be literal or a figure of speech. 'take a bit longer' = need a little more time and effort.
'miracles' - wonderful amazing things - especailly if life-changiing!
'the impossible' means that which seems impossible).

It's a busniness slogan.

Anyone can help me? IN CORRECT SCRIPT PLEASE!

Thank you so much (I will say that in Biblical Greek, if you tell me how to!)


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## Gradiva

Hi! Is that a quote from the Bible? If yes, can you give more information on it? Because if you are indeed refering to the Septuagint translation of the Bible, one might need to know where to find the quote to provide you  with a translation.


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## Welshie

It is not a quote from the Bible.


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## Δημήτρης

Isn't this a paraphrase of “The impossible we do at once; the miraculous takes a little longer.”?

Anyway,
That is in Modern Greek. I have no idea what Biblical Greek is.
"Μπορούμε να πετύχουμε το αδύνατο σε μια νύχτα. Τα θαύματα θα μας πάρουν λίγο παραπάνω." "We can accomplish the impossible overnight. Miracles will take a bit longer*" (*in the sense you say in your post. Both time and effort).


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## ireney

I wonder if the following would be considered OK.
(Το) αδύνατον ποιουμε εν μια νυκτι. Θαυματα μικρόν χρόνον πλέον (χρωνται)

Note that I just put it here for consideration and it misses the right markings (breathing  and accent marks etc)


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## edwardtheconfessor

Gradiva said:


> Hi! Is that a quote from the Bible? If yes, can you give more information on it? Because if you are indeed refering to the Septuagint translation of the Bible, one might need to know where to find the quote to provide you with a translation.


Thank you for your interest Gradiva. No, it is not a quote from the Bible (even though it may sound a little like it). It is, as I have said, a business slogan. It is mine, in fact - I am a Mental and Spirtual Healer. I am also a keen amateur philologist (not so much a linguist!). I am also an accredited lay preacher - hence my interest in biblicial Greek.
If you have any knowledge of this and wish to help me further, I should be most grateful. Thank you.


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## edwardtheconfessor

ireney said:


> I wonder if the following would be considered OK.
> (Το) αδύνατον ποιουμε εν μια νυκτι. Θαυματα μικρόν χρόνον πλέον (χρωνται)
> 
> Note that I just put it here for consideration and it misses the right markings (breathing and accent marks etc)


 
Thank you ireney. This could be most useful. I already explained above (in my response to Gradiva) the background and the reason for my interest.
My knowledge of biblical Greek, I'm afraid, is limited to just a few words.
Could you please clarify if you have used the first and second person inclusve here (i.e. 'we' meaning 'you and I' - a distinction which is not inbuilt into modern English pronouns, unfortunately ....)?

I did wonder what your accents indicated. Do they, in fact, have any meaning in written Greek? It would be written (appearing on my website).

Also could you please explain - perhaps I am stupid - why the final word (beginning greek 'x' ) at the end in brackets?

Thank you so much.


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## edwardtheconfessor

Δημήτρης said:


> Isn't this a paraphrase of “The impossible we do at once; the miraculous takes a little longer.”?
> 
> Anyway,
> That is in Modern Greek. I have no idea what Biblical Greek is.
> "Μπορούμε να πετύχουμε το αδύνατο σε μια νύχτα. Τα θαύματα θα μας πάρουν λίγο παραπάνω." "We can accomplish the impossible overnight. Miracles will take a bit longer*" (*in the sense you say in your post. Both time and effort).


 
Thank you very much , (I cannot write your name as I have no greek font accces on my keyboard).
I have copied it - I'm not a bad (amateur) calligrapher as well!

You have well grasped the meaning of my phrase and no doubt it is a good translation - in modern Greek. So this could be of some help (even though it's not the kind of Greek I am looking for!).
Thank you for your interest!


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## ireney

Hello there!
First of all, as I said, I am not overtly sure that my phrase is 100% correct in Koine Greek ("bastardised" by the way?) 

The words in brackets (first and last) are words that I'm not sure are necessary. The first one (To) is the article for neuter singular (nominative in this case) which I think is actually necessary. The last (χρωνται) means "need" (since I think that the exression "take time" is not a Koine Greek one). I believe it could be omitted. 

As for "we". I am not sure what you mean here. The "you" part is as vague in Greek as in English. "We" refers to a group of people (unless it's "plural of majesty" of course  ) that includes the speaker. Whether "you" is included or not in that "we" is a matter of context and/or emphasis. Same as English really.

The accent marks; a thorough discussion of the accent marks needs a thread (or more than one  ) by itself. In a nutshell, I used only the one accent mark that remains in modern Greek and denotes, well, the accent point  There were more in Ancient Greek. Their significance sort of varies; the breathing marks denoted  the presence or absence of a sort of faint "h" at the beginning of the word, the accent marks denoted change of pitch, the subscript used to be pronounced. All this when they first started been noted down (before that they weren't noted down but they were, of course, pronounced). At different stages of the Greek language they stopped being anything more than parts of the historical spelling or, in the case of accent marks, all denoting the same thing, the accent point.

Donning my mod cap I have to say that, should you or anyone else want a more in-depth discussion of these markings, you should notify me (or another moderator) and ask to move/copy the relevant part of this post in a new thread. Or start a new thread yourself.


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## edwardtheconfessor

edwardtheconfessor said:


> HI
> Anyone out there know BIBLICAL GREEK (a.k.a KOINE or 'bastardised' (NEW TESTAMENT) GREEK)?? [NOT ANCIENT GREEK, NOT MODERN GREEK] ....
> 
> 'The impossible we do overnight; miracles take a bit longer'
> 
> ('we' means 'you and I'. 'overnight' can be literal or a figure of speech. 'take a bit longer' = need a little more time and effort.
> 'miracles' - wonderful amazing things - especailly if life-changiing!
> 'the impossible' means that which seems impossible).
> 
> It's a busniness slogan.


 
Hmmmm. This seems to be proving a toughie doesn't it? Not quite sure why.  I had some initial interest on this thread - but still not yet got the translation I needed.  Anyone???? Anyone at all ?????


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## webskate101

Here's a couple of suggestions:
τὰ μὲν ἀδύνατα ποιοῦμεν ἐν μιᾷ νύκτι, τὰ δὲ θαυμαστὰ χρόνον πλέον

This one uses a word that means "immediately" rather then "one night":
αὐτίκα μὲν τὰ ἀδύνατα ποιοῦμεν, τὰ δὲ θαυμαστὰ χρόνον πλέον

Also, are you sure you don't want to say "the *difficult* we do at once, the miraculous takes a little longer" If so how about
τὰ μὲν χαλεπὰ ποιοῦμεν ἐν μιᾷ νύκτι, τὰ δὲ θαυμαστὰ χρόνον πλέον

Cheers,

John


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## edwardtheconfessor

webskate101 said:


> Here's a couple of suggestions:
> τὰ μὲν ἀδύνατα ποιοῦμεν ἐν μιᾷ νύκτι, τὰ δὲ θαυμαστὰ χρόνον πλέον


 
John/webskate - this looks like a very good trans. (if it is a literal one, then great!)  I wish to say 'thank you so much'! (not sure how I'd say THAT in biblical Greek - perhaps you can enlighten me!)

- edwardtheconfessor


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## ireney

The only problem I see with webskate101's translation is that it misses the "little". Verbatim, his translation translates  into :"The impossible (things/whatever) we do overnight while the miraculous (could be used as "miracles" too, no problem) in more time"


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## edwardtheconfessor

ireney said:


> The only problem I see with webskate101's translation is that it misses the "little". Verbatim, his translation translates  into :"The impossible (things/whatever) we do overnight while the miraculous (could be used as "miracles" too, no problem) in more time"



Thank you ireney (if you are still there?). I let this one 'mellow' for a while to see if anyone came up with any other advice or suggestions.  Can you (or anyone) suggest a way to take on board your, clearly valid, criticism of webskate101's translation? If not, then I guess I shall now have to send it on its way as it is (i.e. put it on my website) as the best Biblical Greek translation I can get of this. Okay?


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## artion

My version:

Τα αδύνατα εν μία νυκτί, τα θαυμαστά εν πλείονι χρόνω (ποιούμεθα).
If it is a moto, you don't need the verb ποιούμεθα.  

I wouldn't call "bastardized" the New Testament Greek. It has very few foreign words.  I would only call bastardized the N.T. translation in other european languages.


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