Readers,
In the prayer “Pater Noster” there is the following line:
“sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.”
acc pl nom pl Gen pl Gen pl
Translated:
as and we we send forth/abandon/renouce to debtors ours.
commony:
as we forgive those who tresspass against us.
Why “nos dimittimus?” Is it reflexive? Are “we” renoucing “us?”
Thanks inadvance,
Rob Carignan
Portland, Me
I’m sure you know this, but…
There’s no reason that “nos” has to be accusative. The nominative of the third person pronoun has the same form. It is not necessary to include it, since the verb indicates the person, but it may be used if the author wants to make it explicit.
The nos is there because it is there in the Greek (cf. Matt 6).
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς
Because of the greek, we can clearly see that nos here is nominative. As such it is sort of emphatic.
If you look at the line preceding it, you will see why ‘nos’ is emphatic.
“May YOU forgive US, like WE forgive our debtors.”