[B-Greek] Usage of Neuter Singular Article

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Sep 24 16:27:58 EDT 2004


At 6:59 PM +0100 9/24/04, Maurice A. O'Sullivan wrote:
>At 17:55 24/09/2004, dhoxworth at charter.net wrote:
>
>>sort of saw this in one grammar (I think it was Porter), but it didn't
>>seem that they spent much time on it. What do grammars call this
>>category/usage of the article?
>
>It's the _combination_ of the infinitive and neuter article which matters
>here.

This is true, but it isn't only with verbs that the neuter article forms
substantives; it can, as I stated yesterday, convert ANY word into a
substantive --as was the case with the instances of TO hEN and TO AUTO in
Phil 2:2 about which Dough asked originally.

Cf BDAG hO, hH, TO s.v. 2.b.Gamma:
	b.Gamma. The neut. of the adj. w. the art. can take on the mng. of
an abstract noun (Thu. 1, 36, 1 to\ TO DEDIOS=fear; Herodian 1, 6, 9; 1,
11, 5 TO SEMNON THS PARQENOU; M. Ant. 1, 1; Just., D. 27, 2 DIA TO
SKLHROKARDION hUMWN KAI ACARISTON EIS AUTON) TO CRHSTON TOU QEOU God's
kindness Ro 2:4. TO DUNATON power 9:22. TO SUMFORON benefit 1 Cor 7:35. TO
GNHSION genuineness 2 Cor 8:8. TO EPIEIKES Phil 4:5 al.

Aristotle's "categories of understanding" are formulated with neuter
articles and the item in question: TO POION "quality" TO POSON "quantity"
or TO PROS TI "relation" (lit. "the in-relation-to what"). A common
Aristotelian phrase used to puzzle me when I first started reading
Aristotle: TO TI/ HN EINAI "being what it was."

A common feature of Hellenistic Greek is the growing number of adverbs
formed by prefacing the neuter article to adverbial phrases which may then
be used themselves as adverbs (as was the case with TO hEN and TO AUTO in
Phil 2:2): TO KAQ' hHMERAN "daily", TO KAQ' hOLOU "generally", TO KATA
MEROS "partially."

So--yes, the articular infinitive itself is a wide-ranging grammatical
category, the more so in Hellenistic than in earlier Greek, but the range
of usage of the neuter article with phrases to form substantives of varied
sorts is indeed extensive well beyond the articular infinitive.

>Daniel B. Wallace. in his: Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics - Exegetical
>Syntax of the New Testament (Vol. 1, Page 600). Zondervan Publishing House
>and Galaxie Software has this to say in his treatment of the various uses
>of the infinitive:
>
> >>>
>II. Substantival Uses
>
>There are four basic uses of the substantival infinitive: subject, direct
>object, appositional, and epexegetical.  A specialized use of the direct
>object is indirect discourse. But because it occurs so frequently, it will
>be treated separately. Thus, pragmatically, there are five basic uses of
>the substantival infinitive: subject, direct object, indirect discourse,
>appositional, and epexegetical.  <<<<
>
>and he deals specifically with Phil. 1:21:
> >>>
>For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain
>
>These infinitives could also be translated as gerunds: 'living is Christ
>and dying is gain.' This text illustrates two other points of Greek syntax:
>(1) The subject has the article (in the first clause, since one of the
>substantives has the article and the other is a proper noun [in Paul], what
>determines the subject is word order); and (2) the tenses of the
>infinitives are lexically informed. It is no accident that the first
>infinitive is present ('to continue living') and the second is aorist ('to
>die'). <<<
>
>
>
>Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
>mauros at iol.ie
>
>
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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-- 

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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