[B-Greek] Revelation 13:18

George F. Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Tue Jul 6 13:21:57 EDT 2004


On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 20:36:04 EDT EgwEimi at aol.com writes:
>  
> In a message dated 7/5/2004 2:03:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time,  
> ronpt at comcast.net writes:
> 
> This  question concerns the explanatory clause ARIQMOS GAR ANQRWPOU 
> 
> ESTIN, in  which both nouns are anarthrous.  John has used the term 
> 
> "number"  three times in this verse and the two others have teh 
> definite  
> article.  How would this best be understood grammatically, and I 
> have  
> read the comments of Wallace in GGBTB.
> 
> 
> The generic "it" should be regarded as the subject.
> "It is a person's number" is a worthwhile translation, 
> although "it is the number of a person" is reasonable; 
> both say the same thing.  
>  
> In context, the number belongs to a designated human 
> being, called the "wild animal" (QHRIOS), whose 
> number can be calculated (YHFISATW, ..."should 
> calculate...").  This is the number represented by a 
> person's name (v. 17).
>  
> The passage does not name any particular person, but 
> the description of this wild animal is supposed to 
> enable the first century reader to identify him.  This 
> identification, though, is more a matter of the structure 
> and nature of the work than of the Greek language, 
> per se.
>  
> Frank
> ---

The author tells us precisely what the number stands for.  It is not any
particular individual but "Man" -- man writ large.

george
gfsomsel



More information about the B-Greek mailing list