Gender in Pronouns
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jun 9 15:12:09 EDT 2002
I think that what Danny has offered here is excellent as a translation
strategy, but I think it's important to distinguish between understanding
what the Greek says from how it may best be translated into English. The
chief item to be clear about in relationship to the original question
raised by Harry is this: the GRAMMATICAL gender of nouns, pronouns,
adjectives, and participles bears no necessary relationship to BIOLOGICAL
gender. While there may in instances of nouns referring to biological males
or females be an overlap of GRAMMATICAL with BIOLOGICAL gender, even nouns
referring to biologically male or female persons may not be GRAMMATICALLY
masculine or feminine, as, for example, TEKNON, PAIDION, KORASION.
At 12:01 PM -0700 6/9/02, Danny Andre' Dixon wrote:
>Harry:
>
>You ask "wouldn't Grammatical gender be the same as
>biological gender?"
>
>I think it would be best to allow the contextually
>inherent nature or quality of the word determine how
>to translate the grammatical gender.
>
>For example, consider the neuter phrase TO APOLWLOS of
>Luke 19:10. Here we are told that the "Son of Man came
>to seek and to save the lost thing," or as some
>translations render it, "what was lost." "The lost" is
>obviously that group OF PEOPLE that is spiritually
>lost. Regarding the use of the neuter with reference
>to persons, consider Blass, Debrunner, and Funk who
>write, "In Greek literature, the neuter is used at
>times with reference to persons if it is not the
>individuals, but a general quality that is to be
>emphasized" (Grammar of New Testament Greek and other
>Early Christian Literature½ p. 76).
>
>Or consider James 1:25 where the masculine "perfect
>law" (TELEION NOMON) appears in the masculine. We
>don't "look intently into him" but rather into "it"
>because "the word"--the Scripture--is a thing (Cp.
>context at James 1:22-23).
>
>Or consider the eternal concept the word, HO LOGOS, in
>John 1:1, it, which becomes (EGENETO) flesh, namely
>the person Jesus in John 1:14 (Cf. the Tyndale New
>Testament at John 1:1, 4: "In the beginning was the
>word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.
>. .All things were made by IT . . .In IT was life,"
>emphases added).
>
>Brits and Americans like to think of ship or a boat as
>"she." The Greeks thought of a ship as an "it" (TO
>PLOION, e.g. in the singular at Matthew 4:21 and in
>the plural TA PLOIA in James 3:4).
>
>Try to read without presupposition in a given textto
>determine how you will translate, always being aware
>of the grammatical form. And if there is no compelling
>reason to do otherwise, translate as context
>determines. Things and concepts are "its." Persons are
>"he's and she's."
>
>Danny Andre' Dixon
>
>
>=====
>
>
>
>
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--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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