TIS and grammatical gender (Was Re: [B-Greek] 1 Timothy 5:8
Polycarp66 at aol.com
Polycarp66 at aol.com
Fri Jan 16 11:52:45 EST 2004
In a message dated 1/16/2004 11:33:21 AM Eastern Standard Time,
eluchil404 at yahoo.com writes:
> 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'.
>
________
No, Ann is correct. Also D. Hoxworth is correct. Masc. grammatical gender
is not a totally reliable indicator that it refers to a male. In English we
have historically used a similar device in the use of pronouns, i.e. we state
such things as "he who has ears . . ." knowing that the "he" does not preclude
the fairer sex. Hoxworth is correct in that one cannot simply pull a theory
out of thin air which blatantly contradicts ALL evidence. There's enough truth
in the equation of grammatical gender with physical gender to make such an
assertion positively dangerous.
gfsomsel
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