Romans 1:16

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Mon Apr 8 22:03:06 EDT 2002


In a message dated 4/7/02 11:21:09 PM Central Daylight Time, 
waldoslusher at yahoo.com writes:

> > 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.
>  
Its news to me that verbs in Greek or English have antecedents. Pronouns have 
antecedents, but no one told me in these 52 years or high school or above 
education that verbs have antecedents in Latin, Hebrew, German, or Greek. If 
the subject of a verb is a pronoun it has an antecedent understood or 
expressed. Is this something the linquists have changed while I slept with my 
Funk three volume grammar? Clay, is this your doing?

Carlton Winbery
Louisiana College



More information about the B-Greek mailing list