Re: Good Greek? (Examples from textbook exercises)

porson (porson@ix.netcom.com)
Wed, 23 Oct 96 23:56:26 -0000

Hello,

I don't know if this helps, but here it is:

TEKNON: it is related to TIKTW, to bring into the world, to give birth,
to beget, to bear, to produce, to engender. A related word, TIKTIKOS, is
used to describe a drug for women in childbirth. TOKOS, meaning
childbirth, is another related word (cf. QEOTOKOS). TEKNON, it would
seem, refers primarily to a child or a young child. It has been a form of
address from an elder to a youngster (Homer), a term associated with
mothers (Tragedians), and a term referring to the young of animals. If I
might, I'd like to cite some examples from the Didache:
iii.1 TEKNON MOU, PhEUGE APO PANTOS PONHROU...
ii.2 ... OU PhONEUSEIS TEKNON EN PhQORAI...
It would seem to me highly unlikely that TEKNON, in the passage you
cited, would refer to a husband to be. TEKNON seems to be mostly a term
of address to an inferior (not pejoratively speaking).

TOUS LOGOUS TOUS TOU KURIOU = TOUS TOU KURIOU LOGOUS. It's a common,
perhaps somewhat more formal equivalence. Check out Goodwin, Greek
Grammar, 950-980, or any other good reference grammar.

YUXAS: Besides our common understanding of this word as soul, spirit,
departed spirit, it also has, from Homeric times onward, the sense of
life or life principle. LXX Genesis i.30 has:
..hO EXEI EN AUTWI YUXHN ZWHS... 1611 translates "wherein there is
life." I suppose TAS YUXAS
THS ERHMOU could be an instance of synecdoche, i.e., making the part
stand for the whole. LSJ cites an instance from Theophrastus in which
YUXH is used to mean creature: KALEITAI GOUN hH YUXH KRINOKORAKA. LSJ
also cites Romans 13.1 as an instance in which YUXH should be understood
as a living creature: PASA YUXH EKSOUSIAIS hUPEREXOUSAIS hUPOTASSESQW...

I conclude as I began: I don't know if this helps, but that's it for now.