Romans 1:16

waldo slusher waldoslusher at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 8 00:20:49 EDT 2002


Carlton wrote this

> Rom 1:16:  "OU  GAR  EPAISCHUNOMAI  TO EUANGELION 
> DUNAMIS GAR  THEOU 
> ESTIN  EIS  SOTERIAN  PANTI  TO PISTEUONTAI  IUDAIO 
> TE  PROTON  KAI 
> hELLENI."
> 
> First, ESTIN is a verb and does not have an
> antecendent. If we understand the 
> subject as "it" then it can have an antecedent. 


This caught my attention primarily because of the
wording.

I know it is true in "English" that verbs to do
have antecedents. But I have noticed that Greek
finite verbs are completely different animals than
the English variety.

ESTIN is not "is" but "he/she/it is". And, at least
in English, he/she/it is a pronoun and ALWAYS has
an antecedent, even if it is an implied one.
 
My Greek teacher uses the expression that "a finite 
verb agrees with its subject/noun".

Technically speaking, Carlton, is your statement 
"ESTIN is a verb and does not have an antecendent" an
English statement or a Greek one? It seems to me that
every Greek verb has a Person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) attached
to the ending, and therefore every Greek verb has an
antecedent.

Waldo Slusher
Calgary, AL


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