Does it mean having been drunken?
https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/8887/how-to-interpret-john-210
says that methiosin in the bible means alcoholic intoxication
Words similar to it are all drunk related
http://biblehub.com/greek/strongs_3184.htm
It seems the word drunk in english can mean two things. It can mean alcoholic intoxication. It can also be the past participle form of drink.
Yet the word methiosin is translated as
http://biblehub.com/greek/methustho_sin_3184.htm
- have drunk freely
- men have well drunk
- they might have drunk freely
I wonder if the english translation means have been drunken (alcoholy intoxicated) or does it mean something else (like being not thirsty anymore). Does it mean that the men have simply drunk a lot of liquid (not necessarily intoxicating)
What does have drunk freely means? Does it mean being drunk?
Best Answer
You have three translations attempting to say the same thing:
Your cite gives the verb as μεθυσθῶσιν (related to the Greek word for wine), third person plural, aorist tense, subjunctive mood, passive voice It is difficult to map Greek verb forms directly in English. The aorist was often used for narrative and indirect discourse; the subjunctive indicates possibility; the passive takes the action to the subject. So one literal rendering is "[when] they should [or might] be being intoxicated by wine."
The point of the passage is to examine the hosts behavior when his guests have had enough of his good wine so that alcohol has made them insensible to the quality of further drink.