Phillipians 2:1 PNEUMATOS - Big S or little S?

MarkBrown0 at aol.com MarkBrown0 at aol.com
Mon Sep 28 18:07:07 EDT 1998


In a message dated 9/28/1998 9:13:37 AM Central Daylight Time,
steve at allegrographics.com writes:

> >Is it more likely, given that PNEUMATOS is antharous, that the first
>  >option is correct?  Would the presence of the article still leave us
>  >uncertain between option (2) and option (3)?
>  >
>  >Tim Duke
>  >Sydney
>  >
>  I'm wondering why it has to be one or the other and not all of the above.
>  If we translate it as "spiritual fellowship", it need not be one or the
>  other. Through our spirit we have fellowship with one another in the Holy
>  Spirit and with the Holy Spirit. Maybe we should look at the lack of an
>  article as inclusive rather exclusive. A commonality of our spirits with
>  the Spirit of God. Making the noun PNEUMATOS into an adjective puts the
>  focus back on the fellowship where it belongs.
>  
>  Steve
>  

While I think this makes a nice theological argument, I don't think it makes a
good grammatical/textual argument.  If Paul meant to use PNEUMATOS as an
adjective, then why didn't he use the adjective form of the word: PNEUMATIKOS,
which he does use in many other letters?  Discussions on interpretation should
start first on a grammatical basis.

- Mark -



More information about the B-Greek mailing list