Star of Bethlehem

Moon-Ryul Jung moon at saint.soongsil.ac.kr
Sun Jan 7 10:02:09 EST 2001



[Moon] 
> >By the way, what is the difference between
> >
> >hOI MAGOI hOI APO ANATOLWN
> >and MAGOI hOI APO ANATOLWN?
> 
[Carl]
> about one milligram; I guess the first would be a little more definite (as
> if the author knew who they were; I don't know when we get the first
> tradition that actually names them whatever: Caspar, Balthazar, and
> whatever?). But the important thing would be the attributive construction
> of APO ANATOLWN.
> 

[Moon]

Now, I can ask the question that I really wanted to ask.

According to your understanding there is no way to 
describe unspecified wise men that are from
the east by using three words, MAGOI, APO,  ANATOLWN.

All of three options
 hOI MAGOI APO ANATOLWN,
  hOI MAGOI hOI APO ANATOLWN
  MAGOI hOI APO ANATOLWN

are definite expressions.

The only option, which might refer to indefinite entity,
MAGOI APO ANATOLWN
is problematic because APO ANATOLWN does not seem to be
attributive.

How can I refer to unspecified wise men by using 
MAGOI, APO, ANATOLWN?

Moon
Moon-Ryul Jung
Sogang Univ, Seoul, KOrea



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