[B-Greek] QEOS masc or fem

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Apr 8 05:59:10 EDT 2004


At 7:47 AM +0300 4/8/04, Iver Larsen wrote:
>> In Acts 19:37 we find THN QEON, where QEON is a
>> masculine form, although used with the feminine
>> article THN QEON. I seem to recall there being
>> feminine forms for QEOS. Didn't Greek have both
>> masculine and feminine forms for QEOS?
>>
>> =====
>> Eddie Mishoe
>> Pastor
>
>Since you are reading through Acts, you probably recall the word QEA from
>19:27. QEA is specifically feminine, a goddess. QEOS is in itself not gender
>specific, but normally used to refer to a masculine god. When THN QEON is
>used here I suspect that the focus is on the semantic feature of "god"
>(someone to be worshipped) over and above the feature of gender.
>
>Most English translations render THN QEON in 19:37 as "goddess", but I think
>it would be in order to translate "god" here, since the gender is not in
>focus. Unless "god" in English always refer to a masculine entity?

I am not aware of any English usage of "god" to refer to a non-masculine
entity in the singular; where it's used in the plural hOI QEOI it may refer
collectively to the Olympians or the entire pantheon collectively, but I
really can't imagine THN QEAN Englished as "the god" or any native English
speaker being anything but puzzled at "the god" as a reference to Diana of
Ephesus.
-- 

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



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