[B-Greek] 1 Cr. 13:2 - PASAN THN PISTIN

A. J. Birch AJBIRCH at terra.es
Mon Apr 25 16:09:44 EDT 2005


Dear 'B-Greekers',

Regarding PASAN THN PISTIN (and, come to that, PASAN THN GNWSIN, too) in 1 Cor. 13:2, I may be wrong, but I think part of the answer to the original question is the difference between more 'abstract nouns' (like both GNWSIS and PISTIS) and more 'concrete nouns' (like POLIS). I think this may be something similar to what in Catalan (which I'm in the early stages of learning) is referred to as 'countable things' and 'non-countable things', and in English (apparently) 'count nouns' and 'non-count nouns'. Obviously, in some contexts the word 'faith' (in any language, presumably) can be a 'count noun', as in 'the world's religious faiths', but the point is that in 1 Cor. 13:2 (as normally in the New Testament?) Paul seems to be using both GNWSIS and PISTIS as 'non-count nouns', which is (partly, at least) what makes them different from, say, POLIS. I would be grateful for other opinions on this.

Andrew J. Birch
Palma de Mallorca, Spain


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