TIS and grammatical gender (Was Re: [B-Greek] 1 Timothy 5:8

Cirk Bejnar eluchil404 at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 16 11:32:34 EST 2004


I hadn't wanted to comment on this thread because of
my very smallness as a greek and a feeling that Grudem
et al. were getting a bit of a bad rap despite some
cogent points intermixed with their over staments. 
But the latest quote that Ann Nyland has found is pure
and utter nonsense.

--- Ann Nyland <accuratebibles at ozemail.com.au> wrote:
> Grudem states, "Many modern English style books
> would look at 1 Corinthians
> 14:28 and suggest that Paul should rewrite it with
> plurals, 'The speakers
> should keep quiet in the church and speak to
> themselves and God.' 

This is a function of modern English style and has
nothing to do with the meaning of the Greek.  These
types of indefinate ideas are typically expressed with
the singualr in Greek.  Modern English prefers the
plural.  The phrasing "Let he who speaks keep quiet in
church and speak to himself and God" which Grudem
evidently prefers is only accurate where he/him is the
the singular pronoun of indefinate gender.  IF such an
interpretation is not availible than that translation
is not accurate.  A gender specific reading on the
basis of TIS (which can take femine agreement) is
absurd.  hEAUTWi is at least unambiguously masculine,
but masculine forms regularly stand for the common
gender, unless we are to suppose that a word like hO
hIPPOS always means 'stallion'.

Cirk R. Bejnar

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