[B-Greek] John 15, true vine
Cirk Bejnar
eluchil404 at yahoo.com
Wed Jan 5 17:25:10 EST 2005
--- Jim West <jwest at highland.net> wrote:
> I don't make use of Wallace- but I am terribly
> curious what a 2nd person
> singular "you" would be if not personal?? Is there
> conceptually even the
> possibility that someone saying "you" is not
> addressing someone? Thus
> Wallace must be right here, mustn't he?
In English, 'you' is often used to refer to an
imaginary or ideal person rather than those addressed:
"If you see a dragon, you are crazy" where the older
language prefers the third person pronoun one. If
Wallace is stating that this _never_ happens in Greek
I think he is on thin ice.
Smyth says
"The second person singular is used to designate an
imaginary person, as in proverbs: YUCHS EPIMELOU THS
SEAUTOU 'care for thy own soul' Menander's Sententiae
551 and in such phrases as EIDON AN 'you would have
seen' and hHGHSAIO AN 'you might think'.
Herodotus uses the second person in directions to
travellers."
Thus it is not at all impossible for the second
singular to have a general or ideal reference beyond
the specific person addressed.
Cirk R. Bejnar
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