Complications of the Article

Mr. Gary S. Dykes yhwh3in1 at lightspeed.net
Wed Dec 8 23:55:46 EST 1999


Woodruff wrote in part:
Nigel Turner in his volume 3 of Moulton-Howard-Turner's _Grammar of the
Greek New Testament_ discusses the Semetic influence on the absence of the
article on page 179-180. 

Dykes replies:
Turner mentions the influence of Hebrew. As far as "Semitic" languages go, 
the Syriac also had an impact on some article usages in the NT, especially 
as concerns Greek NT MSS copied by Syrian oriented scribes. In Syriac there 
is no true article, and the construct state cannot be a guide to the 
existence or non-existence of an original Greek article. Syriac has 
devised
several other means to indicate SOME articles. This note applies to another 
post which implicated the construct state in the Semitic languages.

I wish Turner had commented upon the Sahidic's influence as well, but 
Coptic is like a sub-set of the Hamitic/Semitic group. Because Turner 
focused uopn the Hebrew "influence" one suspects his motives, why JUST 
Hebrew (perhaps he felt the LXX impacted the Greek, which it did, but not 
to the degree he posits). So posits I.

Some view Turner's contribution the the MHT set as an over-reaction to 
Moulton's view -- that Hebraic idioms were too often used as an excuse for 
various grammatical anomilies in the NT Greek text.

The term Semitic does not just = Hebrew (or just Syriac). I know you know 
this, I am not picking on you, just a reminder we all need.

Mr. Gary S. Dykes  email -- yhwh3in1 at lightspeed.net
Swanson's errata List -- http://userzweb.lightspeed.net/yhwh3in1/



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