[B-Greek] John 1:28

Dony K. Donev dony at cupandcross.com
Tue Aug 9 16:48:37 EDT 2005


Should it be rendered as singular "collective" i.e. this thing happened or
plural these things happened?

Dony K. Donev



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad at ioa.com>
To: "B-Greek B-Greek" <B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc: "Dony K. Donev" <dony at cupandcross.com>; "Bob Firth"
<r.firth at ridley.unimelb.edu.au>
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 3:36 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] John 1:28


> I would only add to this that the principle is standard in Classical
> Attic Greek: neuter plurals take singular verbs; this is regular in
> Classical Attic but is not universally observed by NT Koine writers;
> nevertheless it is standard and common.
>
> On Aug 9, 2005, at 2:38 AM, Bob Firth wrote:
>
> > Dony K. Donev wrote:
> >
> >
> >> Is there a problem with the use of the plural TAUTA in combination
> >> with the singular EGENETO in John 1:28?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > John 1:28 TAUTA EN BHQANIAi EGENETO PERAN TOU IORDANOU hOPOU HN hO
> > IWANNHS BAPTIZWN
> >
> > According to Wallace, neuter plural subjects normally take a singular
> > verb, so I would say no, there is not a problem. He goes on to explain
> > that the neuter plural subject is often referring to a collective
> > whole
> > (in this case "these things" are not treated separately, but as a
> > group). I hope that is helpful (and accurate).
> >
> > Bob
> > ---
> > B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
> > B-Greek mailing list
> > B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
> >
>
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
> cwconrad2 at mac.com
> WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
>




More information about the B-Greek mailing list