Mat 18:17 EKKLHSIA with def. article

Suedaleg at aol.com Suedaleg at aol.com
Fri Jan 12 03:02:02 EST 2001


Sirs:

Michael Finney wrote of an "individualizing article" and a "generic article". 
 Could you explain the difference between these, and especially if there is a 
syntactic difference, or is this distinction a philosophical way of looking 
at the information in the sentance?

In his example  (Matt 18:17)  I can see how hO ETHNOS would be a generic type 
as a nation is a group rather than a single person (even though the context 
is comparing an individual to a member of the group).  It also seems to me 
that hO TELWNHS  speaks of an example of a member of the group, rather than 
speaking of a particular person, in English idiom ". . .let him be to you as 
A Gentile and A tax collector."

because these are examples of a member of a group, I'm not sure the article 
is either "generic" or "individualized", or maybe I am not understanding the 
distinction.  Thanks for your patience.

Dale Greenlee



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