@Susan Nice answer. :) I thought I would add link to online Robertson, but am now confused about page numbers. I can't check my 3rd edition just now - have I got the right page spread from the 2nd? And did you intend "hopes" in the "predicative" translation? or "hope"?

@Davïd Thanks for the edits! ‘Twasn’t my translation - ICC. I have no idea why they even used a noun there.

Why not just “....we should be those who before had hoped”? Oh, maybe that’s what it’s supposed to be and it’s a typo.

I could [sic] it, but I feel bad...ICC...

@Susan I really appreciate your answer. Thanks for taking what was obviously a good amount of time to give me clear responses to what I asked and even more helpful information to questions that I didn't know TO ask!

@mbm29414 No problem; commentaries have already done all the work (100+ years ago in this case). I gotta run at the moment but will be back in a couple hours if you’re around and want to chat. Be encouraged that you can learn koine Greek without enrolling in seminary. :-)

@Susan I believe that and am working on it. I don't mind hard work, but I'd like the work to be as efficient as possible. I work from home, so I'm pretty much always around. ;-) Thanks again.

@mbm29414 I'll be around on and off for the next few hours, but conversations in here are often dyssynchronous (not a word, hm), so feel free to leave messages whenever. I have a lot of thoughts on this topic, but so that I can attempt to say something useful (and since I see that you're an SO'er) - what have you tried?

(Caveats to anything I say: 1) my opinions are based on n=1; 2) my Greek, while passable for reading the GNT (I still struggle with Hebrews), is not actually that great. I don't know anything beyond what I imagine is considered "intermediate" level.)

But as someone who understands these texts as scripture, I have found being able to read in the language it was written rewarding to a degree I didn't expect it to be. (So much so that as soon as I had a little bit of it I became dissatisfied with my relationship with the Hebrew scriptures. Beware of what you're getting into!)

@Davïd I think I was actually in the section on compounding with verbs, 557 ff. there, but yours might be more to the point.

@Davïd (pulling from an older conversation) It's remarkable to me that we have so few questions on BH about text criticism of the HB. I love Greek and am a big fan of the GNT, but text critical questions there, for someone who has no expertise in the field, seem to me....boring. A long list of manuscripts and I have no idea which one is better, and a zillion variations that matter not at all.

The HB is totally different, and if somebody’s bringing up to consider something contra MT, it’s because it changes the meaning. And I can count the major witnesses on one hand, which I appreciate.

@Susan I appreciate your caveats. From my perspective, you don't appear to be intermediate. Anyway, I'm getting started by going through Mounce's BBG. I also have a reader's edition of the UBS4. Further, I got the UBS4 as an audiobook through Amazon and sometimes listen to it while in the car and sometimes listen to it while reading along. I've been studying intensely through Ephesians in the past few weeks, and I'm reading that passage many, many times in both the English (ESV) and the Greek.

@Susan It's a bit of a mishmash, but I do find that I'm making progress, learning vocabulary, etc. I need to get back to doing more of the Mounce lessons, though, so that I can understand the grammatical structures better.