[B-Greek] Question about the semitic vocative
Octavio Rodriguez
octaviors at gmail.com
Tue Dec 19 11:24:38 EST 2006
I have a question about the difference of a vocative such as KURIE and a
vocative such as hO KURIOS.
I have read that the first belongs to the ancient greek, and the second is
an influence of the the Hebrew where the article change the nominative to a
vocative.
Thus, the article here would be the signal for the vocative. Am i right?.
For example in John 20:28 we reads hO KURIOS MOU KAI hO QEOS MOU, which
clearly is a semitic vocative due to the article.
However some people who knew greek grammar seemed not to see the article
for this function, for example Cyril of Alexandria (four century)) who
seemed to know grammar well, said about John 20:28:
"Observe, too, that when he says *My Lord and my God, *he uses the article to
show that there was One Lord and One God. For he does not say without the
qualification of the article, KURIOS MOU KAI QEOS MOU*, *to prevent any one
from imagining that he called Him Lord or God as he might have done one of
ourselves or of the holy angels. " (Commentary on John book II)
The question is if Cyril was right about the grammar or may be he was
unaware about when we have a semitic vocative.
Regards
Octavio Rodriguez
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