[B-Greek] Jn 3:16 lack of AUTOU

Yancy Smith Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Thu Dec 1 02:53:08 EST 2005


In Greek as well as in other languages, body parts, near relatives  
and other personal appurtenances are often "unmarked" for possession  
where such marking is required in English. We say "my hand" instead  
of "the hand." However, in colloquial English we find "the old man"  
or "the wife" (meaning roughly "my Dad" or "my wife.") The definite  
article--very often in Greek--in such cases is enough to mark  
possession. Remember that the definite article sometimes functions as  
a weak demonstrative pronoun and may function in such cases as a  
marker of possession.

Yancy Smith
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
Brite Divinity School
Texas Christian University






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