Predicate Nominatives - e.g., Jn 3,6 and 1Jn 4,8

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Dec 16 19:03:20 EST 2002


At 11:15 PM +0100 12/16/02, Roe wrote:
>Dear B-Greeks,
>
>I've had the opinion that while a predicate nominative makes an assertion
>about the subject, it does not function as an adjective -- at least not as
>an attributive adjective.

Well, first of all, by very definition a predicate nominative cannot be an
attributive adjective; an attributive adjective has a clearly-indicated
relationship to a noun. On the other hand, it would certainly be possible
for an attributive adjective to be part of a noun phrase functioning as a
predicate nominative, e.g. hO OUN PARAKLHTOS TO PNEUMA TO hAGION ESTIN,
where hAGION is an attributive adjective but the whole phrase TO PNEUMA TO
hAGION must be viewed as the predicate nominative.

>The following texts...
>
>John 3:6
>...TO GEGENNHMENON EK TOU PNEUMATOS PNEUMA ESTIN
>
>1 John 4:8
>...hO QEOS AGAPH ESTIN
>
>I have taken to mean "that which is born of the Spirit is SPIRIT" and "God
>is LOVE."
>
>My question:  is it possible to instead read these as "that which is born
>of the Spirit is SPIRITUAL" and "God is LOVELY (or LOVING)"?
>
>Or would such readings require an adjective form?

No, these are not possible; they would require, in the first case,
PNEUMATIKON (and this would be called a "predicate adjective"--not an
"attributive adjective") and AGAPHTON or AGAPWN respectively, adjectival
(or participial) forms.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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