Greek Textus Receptus
Ἀβραὰμ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ἠγαλλιάσατο ἵνα ἴδῃ τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ἐμήν, καὶ εἶδε καὶ ἐχάρη.
Free Grace Translation
"Abraham your father exulted that he would see My day, and he saw [it] and was glad."
Bible Translation Notes
Grk. Ἀβραὰμ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν. "There is a cutting irony in the apposition, Abraham, your father. Their father rejoicing in the expectation of a presence which excited only their malice and hatred." (Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, 3 Vols., Vol. II, p. 352.)
Grk. ἠγαλλιάσατο ἵνα ἴδῃ. For the translation of ἠγαλλιάσατο as "exulted," see Leon Morris, The Gospel of John, Revised Edition (NICNT), p. 417. Bengel's translation is similar, and likewise supports my Free Grace Translation. Bengel writes: ἠγαλλιάσατο, ἵνα, exulted that...Evinced his eagerness with longing desire." (John Albert Bengel, Gnomon of the New Testament [Edinburgh: 1868], 5 Vols., Vol. II, p. 368.) Commenting on the phrase ἠγαλλιάσατο ἵνα ἴδῃ, the NT Greek scholar Henry Alford writes: "literally, rejoiced, that He should see." (Alford, The New Testament for English Readers [London: 1863], 2 Vols., Vol. I, Part II, p. 546.) While technically correct and grammatically defensible, the translation "he should see" is somewhat awkward in modern English and actually tends to convey a different idea than the meaning of the Greek. I chose to use the word "would" instead of "should" because in modern-day English, "should" can sometimes be confused with "ought to" (implying moral obligation). Whereas "would" reads much smoother and is still prospective. Several respected English Bible versions similarly translate ἴδῃ in John 8:56 as "he would see" (see e.g., Jn. 8:56 ESV, HCSB, NASB 2020).
Grk. ἵνα ἴδῃ = hina clause with ἴδῃ (aorist subjunctive, 3rd person singular, from ὁράω). Literally, that he should see. Commenting on this phrase, Walther has this insightful comment: "ἵνα ἴδῃ--Instead of ἵνα we might have expected an infinitive or possibly a ὅτι clause. (Cf. 7:35.) ἵνα clauses gradually took over other "to" functions, a process which continued into the Modern Greek period." (James Arthur Walther, New Testament Greek Workbook: An Inductive Study of the Complete Text of the Gospel of John [Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966, 1969], p. 129.) A. T. Robertson (Word Pictures, Vol. V, p. 158) sees the hina clause in John 8:56 as having a "Sub-final use," which would lend support to translating the aorist subjunctive ἴδῃ as the infinitive "to see" (Jn. 8:56 KJV, NKJV, etc.). In his monumental work A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, Robertson goes into more detail in regard to this "Sub-final use of hina." Under the heading "Sub-Final Clauses" (Grammar, p. 991), Robertson writes the following: "There are a considerable number of clauses which are not pure purpose and yet are not result. They are the bridge, in a sense, between the two extremes. [...] Ἵνα. Here again the main conjunction is ἵνα. [...] The development came on soon after the close of the classical age. [...] It came to be used in almost any sense that the infinitive bore and finally displaced it. This weakened use of ἵνα is one of the characteristics of the κοινή and is richly illustrated in the N. T., particularly in the writings of John. [...] There is a great variety of phrases which thus use ἵνα. [...] With these verbs ἵνα gives the purport or object rather than the purpose. [...] The examples in the N. T. are too numerous to give a complete list. But note ἵνα after [...] ἀγαλλιάομαι (Jo. 8:56); [...] No real distinction in sense can here be drawn between the infinitive and ἵνα. [...] The subjunctive is the usual mode [i.e. mood] employed even after secondary tenses." (Ibid., pp. 991-993.) Robertson goes on to say: "It is debatable whether ἵνα has the ecbatic use [i.e. expressing result] in the N. T. There is in itself no reason why it should not have it, since undoubtedly it was so used in the later Greek. [...] There is not space to follow the long debate in the grammars and commentaries on this subject." (Ibid., p. 997.) Robertson "advocates the freedom of commentators to interpret ἵνα as the context demands (final, sub-final, consecutive)." (Ibid., p. 998.) Robertson says: "The commentator must have grammar, but he needs the grammar of the author on whose work he is making comments." (Ibid., p. 998.) Robertson summarizes by saying: "So, then, we conclude that ἵνα has in the N. T. all three uses (final, sub-final, consecutive), and thus runs a close parallel with the infinitive which it finally displaced." (Ibid., p. 999.) Note that translating ἵνα in John 8:56 simply as "that" satisfies Robertson's statement regarding the "Sub-final use of hina" (Word Pictures, Vol. V, p. 158), where the ἵνα clause can be translated either as "that" (see e.g., Jn. 8:56 ESV, HCSB, NASB 2020) or "to" (see e.g., Jn. 8:56 KJV, NKJV, NET Bible). The translation of ἵνα as "that" in John 8:56 is also the definition assigned to it in Bauer's Lexicon (see Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition, p. 476, s.v. ἵνα, definition 2a). In fact, I would propose that rendering ἵνα simply as "that" is the preferable translation in John 8:56 especially in light of the aorist subjunctive verb which follows. The use of the aorist subjunctive ἴδῃ in John 8:56 is a distinctive syntactical feature that the translator should aim to reflect, rather than obscuring the construction by rendering it as a simple infinitive. When the ἵνα + aorist subjunctive in John 8:56 is translated as an infinitive ("to see"), it tends to blur the prospective nuance that the subjunctive conveys. The translation of John 8:56 would then need to read something like: "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the prospect to see My day." While acceptable, that wording does not fully bring out the subjunctive force of ἴδῃ, that he would see. Translating ἵνα simply as "that" (rather than "to") strikes an optimal balance: "Abraham rejoiced that he would see." This wording correctly identifies the object (what Abraham rejoiced about) as well as the potential/future nature of the verb ἴδῃ—the fact that the "seeing" was a promised event that he anticipated and looked toward. In distinction to this, it is the view of Murray J. Harris that the hina clause in John 8:56 "is epexegetic, indicating the content...or ground...of the seeing, 'in that he saw.' In this case, the following statement [in Jn. 8:56b], 'he saw it and was glad,' is a repetition." (Harris, John, EGGNT, p. 183.) But this view seems to create more problems than it solves. The NT Greek scholar Marcus Dods writes: "[The phrase] ἵνα ἴδῃ ['that he should see'] cannot here have its usual Johannine force and be epexegetical (Burton, Moods, etc.), nor as Holtzmann says = ὅτι ὄψοιτο ['that he would see,' i.e. Abraham rejoiced merely at the fact or content of the report], because in this case the εἶδε καὶ ἐχάρη ['he saw it and was glad'] would be tautological [i.e. unnecessarily redundant]. Euthymius gives the right interpretation: ἠγαλλ., ἤγουν, ἐπεθύμησεν ['he rejoiced,' namely 'he longed for,' in other words, 'he rejoiced' is interpreted not so much as a reaction to a reported fact, but as a passionate exultation in a promise] (similarly Theophylact), and the meaning is 'Abraham exulted in the prospect of seeing,' or 'that he should see'. This he was able to do by means of the promises given to him." (Marcus Dods, Expositor's Greek Testament, ed. W. R. Nicoll, 5 Vols., Vol. I, p. 781.) Köstenberger's rendering of John 8:56 seems to convey the latter sense quite well, and although somewhat of a paraphrase, is nonetheless accurate to the idea. He translates it: "Abraham your father looked forward to the time when he would see my day, and he saw it and was glad." (Andreas J. Köstenberger, John, p. 271.) By using "looked forward to the time when," Köstenberger is leaning heavily into the prospective sense of the aorist subjunctive. This supports my objection to using the infinitive "to see" to translate the verb ἴδῃ, because doing so essentially erases the verb's prospective sense.
Grk. ἐχάρη (aor. passive of χαίρω) = was glad. Cf. Edwin A. Abbott, Johannine Vocabulary, p. 30, footnote 3. This is also how ἐχάρη is translated in John 8:56b in the KJV, NKJV, NASB77, NASB95 (though not the NASB 2020 edition, which says "rejoiced"), ESV, NIV, NET Bible, etc. This is consistent with Bauer's definition of χαίρω: "to be in a state of happiness and well-being, rejoice, be glad ... J 4:36; 8:56." (Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd Edition, pp. 1074-1075, s.v. χαίρω, definition 1, emphasis his, ellipsis added.)
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