[B-Greek] heis/mia/hen used as indefinite article?
Jim West
jwest at highland.net
Sun Jul 24 08:34:37 EDT 2005
Carl W Conrad wrote:
>Does Hebrew have an indefinite pronoun?
>
No.
In Hebrew if something isn't specifically made "definite" then it is
naturally "indefinite".
>As for EN hUIWi in Heb 1:2, I think that an indefinite pronoun would
>be misleading there because it might suggest a plurality of sons of
>God, and although the notion of humanity as "sons" or "children" of
>God is not problematic, the author of Hebrews is very much concerned
>with the uniqueness of God's Son. What this suggests is that the
>English indefinite article may have functions that are quite distinct
>from what the Greek writer/speaker felt required in the situation.
>
As you have already suggested- language reflects thought and thought
patterns and until one is virtually immersed in a language (i.e., one
dreams in it), then one is still at a disadvantage in terms of
understanding and therefore of translating.
Best,
Jim
--
D. Jim West
Biblical Studies Resources - http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
Biblical Theology Weblog - http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com
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