[B-Greek] John 15, true vine

kgraham0938 at comcast.net kgraham0938 at comcast.net
Thu Jan 6 08:58:23 EST 2005


Hello Jim, You 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?


Response:  Here is what Wallace said on page 392 of Greek Grammer beyond the basics.

" In the Greek New Testament there is most likely, no indefinite second person as there is in modern colloquial English. ( By " indefinite" I mean the use of the second person for either the first or the third person.) Webster defines the indefinite second person of modern English as referring to " a person or people generally: equivalent in sense to indefinite one, as you can never tell!"


Me:So it is sort of like if a person asked you for directions and you answered " well *you* turn left and go up the street."  The "you" there is indefinite, you are not really addressing the person.

Or when you tell someone. " You never know."  Wallace does not believe that Greek has this.

--
Kelton Graham
KGRAHAM0938 at comcast.net






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