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S i d e b a r
It Was Greek to Me
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This Rock
Volume 16, Number 3
 March 2005 
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One Protestant scholar tried to explain away John 20:21–23 with this reasoning: Because "the first verbs in the two clauses are aorists, which imply the action of an instant; [and] the second verbs are perfects [these verbs] imply an abiding state that began before the action of the first verbs" (Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gabelein, vol. 9, Zondervan, 193).
But this approach ignores the fact that the two aorist subjunctive verbs "you forgive" and "you retain" are contained in indefinite relative clauses meaning "whoever’s sins you forgive" and "whoever’s sins you retain." Not only are these two aorist verbs in the subjunctive mood—which has a future orientation rather than the normal past of the aorist—but the indefinite relative clauses express a conditional thought that must be fulfilled before the concluding clauses of "are forgiven" and "are retained" can be fulfilled.
In short, the apostles are essential in the text because the forgiveness is contingent upon them doing the forgiving. Before the future event of these sins being forgiven occurs, another future event must occur; namely, the apostles must forgive those sins.
A similar example can be found in John 8:36: "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Greek scholar James Allen Hewett uses this as an example of the aorist subjunctive tense in the protasis (conditional clause) being used to express a necessary contingency before the fulfillment of the apodosis (concluding clause):
"‘If therefore the Son set you free [ean . . . eleutherosei], truly you will be free.’ The aorist tense indicates that a process is not in mind but an act. Given its future fulfillment, which, according to the Greek structure, is quite likely, the apodosis is sure to follow" (New Testament Greek: A Beginning and Intermediate Grammar, Hendrickson, 170).
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