[B-Greek] 1 John 4:1
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Sep 8 18:05:38 EDT 2004
At 5:53 PM -0400 9/8/04, Dony K. Donev wrote:
>Why is PNEUMATA (plural) used with ESTIN (singular) in 1 John 4:1?
>
>
>
>I read the thread from 2001 about the use of ESTIN with plural subject
>(TIM. A' 1:20 -- hWN ESTIN hUMENAIOS KAI ALEXANDROS...) and the related
>conclusions. The obvious difference is that 1 John 4:1 does not contain a
>compound subject as does 1 Tim. 1:20. Does the same principle of
>translation still apply?
The simple rule involved here is that neuter plural subjects regularly take
a singular verb; that's standard in earlier Greek; in the Koine it isn't
always observed, but it's still quite common.
--
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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