Subjunctive Mood

Subjunctive Mood is a mood used to speak about hypothetical actions. More precisely, in New Testament Greek, it appears in the following cases:

• The main verb in many subordinate clauses often has to be in the Subjunctive Mood. For example, result\purpose-clauses with ἵνα as a conjunction (usually translated as so that or in order that) always have a subjunctive verb. The same goes for result-clauses with ὥστε, conditional clauses involving εἵ, ἁν or ἐάν, and other clauses of time, place, etc. Sometimes one might convey the subjunctive nature of the verb in the translation by adding may, might, would, could, etc. But that's not necessary.

• Hortatory Subjunctive is used for exhortations. In this case, the subjunctive appears in the main clause. The verb has to be 1st Person (usually Plural). It can often be translated with the construction let us. For example, ποιήσωμεν means: let us create.

• The subjunctive is also used for deliberations.  Here the verb is also a part of the main clause and has to be in 1st Person (usually Plural). The sentence also has to be a question. It can often be translated with the construction: shall we? For example, ποιήσωμεν; (notice the Greek question mark) means: shall we create?

• Emphatic negation. Subjunctive verbs in the main clause used together with οὑ μή create a strong, emphatic negation, a negation of something being the case right now or in any possible future. One usually translates it with phrases like will never, will certainly not, etc. For example, οὑ μή ποιήσῃ would mean: he will certainly not create. 

Several other things work differently in the Subjunctive mood as compared to the Indicative one.

• The Subjunctive mood is always negated using the particle μή, whereas the Indicative mood uses οὑ.

• The Tenses in the Indicative Mood signified the type of action and the time in which it happened (past, present, or future). In the Subjunctive Mood, the Tenses are only used to determine the type of action. Also, only three Tenses are used: Present for continuous or repeated actions, Aorist for simple actions, and Perfect for completed actions. 

Below, I give the tables for the conjugation of verbs in the Subjunctive Mood in Present and Aorist Tenses. The Perfect Subjunctive rarely appears in the New Testament. In the Present Subjunctive, Contract Verbs also undergo contractions according to the rules.

The Present Subjunctive is based on the First Principal Part. The Active forms are as follows:

The Middle and Passive forms are as follows:

Active & Middle Aorist Subjunctive is based on the Third Principal Part. Before adding the Subjunctive endings, one needs to take away the ε-augment. The Active forms are as follows:

The Middle forms are as follows:

The Subjunctive Aorist Passive is based on the Sixth Principal Part. Again, one needs to remove the ε-augment before adding the endings. The forms are as follows: