"Having Power" Is Not "Can"
When we see the word “can” in Jesus’s words, we are often seeing a word that means, literally “having power”. We cannot look at the Greek word without thinking about power. Because of its mistranslation, much of what Jesus has to say about the nature of power is lost. Translating this verb as “can” or its negative, “cannot,” disguises what Jesus thought we should know about the nature of power, even miraculous forms of power. Unfortunately, we cannot assume that every “can” in Jesus’s words comes from this verb. Biblical translators are not that consistent.
The Greek word translated as “can” is usually dynamai (δύνμαται). This is the root word for our English words “dynamic”, “dynamo” and “dynamite”. Even English speakers who do not know Greek get this sense of power just by seeing this word. The Greek nouns from the same root mean “power”, “might” and “influence”. At best, our English helping verb “can” is a distant cousin to this very strong word. Not only does it mean to “have power”, but it is usually used in the passive or middle voice where the subject acts on/by/for themselves. To use the passive, as biblical translators sometimes do makes it weaker, “be able”. But the middle voice makes it stronger, “have power by yourselves.”
The Key Verb
In English, “can” is a helping verb, a secondary verb describing the state of the active verb. In translating Greek to English, we must use helping verbs to capture the different voices, tenses, and moods of the Greek verbs, but in Greek that work is all performed by the verbs ending.
In Greek verb “having power” is an action in its own right. Translating dynamai as “can” demotes the active verb to a helper. It also promotes the secondary verb giving it more power in the sentence. The focus of a dynamai sentence centers on power. The type of power is described by the secondary verb, a Greek infinitive, that is, a verbal noun. For example, in John 7:7:
NIV: The world cannot hate you…
Listeners Heard: No, it doesn’t have the power by itself, this society, to hate you.
Not hating something and not having the power to hate to do something are two very different ideas. “Can” often indicates a choice. Dynamai always indicates an ability.
The Dynamic Verb
Jesus uses dynamai in sixty-one verses. Its basic form is the middle voice, that is, someone acting on, for, or by themselves. It means someone has the power within themselves, from their own abilities to do something by themselves. Conceptually, if something “has power”, we assume that it has that power in its nature so saying “by itself” is often unnecessary. Dynamai is the source of “miracles”.
This verb is related to both a noun and adjectives from the same root. The noun is dynamis (δυνάμις) that means “power” and “might”. It is sometimes translated as “miracle”. The related adjective, dynatos, means “strong” and “mighty”. Its opposite is adynatos, which Jesus uses in three verses. It means “unable to do a thing”, “powerless” and “without strength”. As an adverb, it means “weakly”, and “feebly”.
A Few Instructive Verses
How does a more powerful translation help us understand Jesus’s meaning? Let us look at a few examples where Jesus talks about his power, starting with John 5:19:
NIV: …The Son can do nothing by himself.
Listeners Heard: The son doesn’t have the power to make anything by himself.
This verse in the English Bible has a second “can” in it, “he can do only what he sees his Father doing.” There is no Greek word in that part of the verse that means “can,” so translators are literally putting words in Jesus’s mouth . This is an example of why we never really know exactly what Jesus is saying in translation. This verse describes a power Jesus doesn’t have, while suggesting where his abilities might lie.
Jesus reiterates this idea a little later in John 5:30:
NIV: By myself I can do nothing;…
Listeners Heard: I myself don’t have power by myself to make from myself something…
This is an even more precise definition of the limitations of Jesus’s power. This verse also illustrates Jesus’s use of emphasis that is lost in translation. It has both the subject pronoun (see this article), creating the first “myself.” The verb is in the middle voice (see this article) creating the second “myself.” It ends with a reflexive pronoun creating the third “myself.” The last “myself” is the only one that appears in English.
Of course, Jesus doesn’t only talk about the source of his own power. He also talks about the source of our powers. However, it isn’t always easy to tell the two apart as in John 3:3:
NIV: …no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
Listeners Heard: …when someone isn't begotten from above, he does not have the power by himself to see the realm of the Divine.
We will leave this topic with one last provocative quote, this time, from Mark 9:23 when Jesus is asked if he has the power to cure a boy that has fits.
NIV: If you can? Everything is possible for one who believes.
Listeners Heard: This one? If you have the power in yourself, everything is possible for the one trusting it.
This verse contains both the verb, dynamai, “have the power in yourself,” and the adjective, dynatos, “is possible.” Having power and trusting it is what makes things possible.
Conclusions
If we examine the sixty verses in which Jesus discusses having power, they tell a consistent story. Our abilities come from trust, but they also come from unity. When we are divided, we lose power. The source of all power is from a higher power. We learn new powers by seeing what the Divine does in nature. This last idea explain the progress of all science in history.