[B-Greek] AUTOS

Brent Hudson brent at riveroflifembchurch.com
Mon Oct 27 10:13:31 EST 2003


When using Mounce's textbook to teach first year Greek, do the teachers on this list augment Mounce's treatment of nominative AUTOS as the subject of verbs (chapter 12)?  Mounce leaves the use of AUTOS with verbs somewhat ambiguous, but his answer key (for the workbook) indicates that AUTOS should be understood as a simple pronoun.  This is opposite of how I have understood this.  I have seen nominative AUTOS with a verb as intensive and as not limited to 3rd person, but for 1 & 2 person as well (cf., AUTOI GAR HKOUSAMEN - Lk 22:71).  My basic concern is why use nominative AUTOS with a verb if not to emphasize/intensify the subject?  After all, a writer can use the definite article to specify the gender or number for the implied subject.

I'm not saying that Mounce is wrong since there are places where AUTOS with a verb is probably best understood in English as a 3rd person pronoun (so Moule with Lk 5.1 - AUTOS HN ESTWS), but is this the primary category 1st year students should consider?  How do the teachers (who have used Mounce) deal with his treatment of AUTOS (and his departure with traditional grammars on this point)?

Brent Hudson




More information about the B-Greek mailing list