04_Parker_222_244_222-244 10/07/15 12:41 Pagina 223 223 IS THE SUBJECT OF tete,lestai IN JOHN 19,30 “IT” OR “ALL THINGS” ? 223 only one systematic defense of this view 4. Therefore, this paper will attempt to demonstrate (1) that the unexpressed subject of tete,lestai in John 19,30 is “all things” (pa,nta) rather than “it” with the subject being supplied from the phrase pa,nta tete,lestai just a few lines earlier in the passage (John 19,28) and (2) that the traditional interpretations of “it” as the subject of tete,lestai in John 19,30 (e.g., the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies; the work that the Father sent Jesus to complete) do not fit well with the over- all message and structure of John. In brief, the initial section of this study will demonstrate the plausibility of the translation “all things”, while the concluding section will explain why this trans- lation makes the best sense from a hermeneutical standpoint. I. Why “All Things” is the Most Likely Subject in John 19,30 1. Syntactical, Contextual, and Morphological Arguments In John 19,30, tete,lestai lacks an expressed subject. Normally, the nominative of a third person verb may be omitted when (1) it is expressed or implied by the context; (2) it is indefinite or imper- sonal (e.g., h=n … prwi<, John 18,28); (3) it is a general statement (e.g., o[tan ovvneidi,swsin u`ma/j, Matt 5,11); (4) the verb implies its own subject (e.g., salpi,sei, “the trumpet will trumpet”, 1 Cor 15,52); or (5) the verb describes meteorological phenomena (e.g., bre,cei, Jas 5,17) 5. Of these options, only examples one or two could apply in John 19,30. The generic “it” (example two) could serve as the subject of tete,lestai in 19,30, as the majority of translators and biblical scholars would have it. The arguments that commend “it” as the subject are that the verb is singular in form, thus suggesting a sin- gular subject, and that the verb is without an expressed subject in 4 R.H. GUNDRY, “New Wine in Old Wineskins: Bursting Traditional In- terpretations in John’s Gospel (Part Two)”, Bulletin for Biblical Research 17 (2007) 292-294. 5 W.W. GOODWIN, A Greek Grammar (Boston, MA 1892) 896; H.W. SMYTH, Greek Grammar (Cambridge, MA 1956) 931-932; F. BLASS – A. DE- BRUNNER – W. FUNK, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Cambridge, MA 1961) 129-130.