[B-Greek] QEIOTHS and QEOTHS

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Jul 4 05:53:18 EDT 2006


On Jul 3, 2006, at 11:48 PM, Dave Smith (REL110, 211,212) wrote:

> The difference, if it exists in Koine, is that between divine and a  
> deity.
> THS is usually taken to be agency, and I is sometimes diminutive.  
> Both of
> these are NT hapaxlogomena and the meanings may overlap in Koine/NT.

BDAG is worth checking on this. 	QEIOTHS derives from the adjective  
QEIOS, QEOTHS from the noun QEOS; QEIOTHS means "divinity" (the  
essence of what it is to be divine), while QEOTHS means "deity" (the  
actual being of God or a particular god of the pantheon). QEIOTHS  
refers to divinity as a quality, while QEOTHS refers to deity as an  
actual thing. There is no essential semantic difference between hO  
QEOS and hH QEOTHS (English "God" and "Deity").

The only GNT text in which QEOTHS appears is Col 2:9: hOTI EN AUTWi  
KATOIKEI PAN TO PLHRWMA THS QEOTHTOS SWMATIKWS. NET Englishes this as  
"For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form ... " It's  
not "divinity" whose fullness dwells in him, according to this text,  
but "deity."


Col. 2:9 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ  
πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς,
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mitch Larramore" <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
> To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 23:17
> Subject: [B-Greek] QEIOTHS and QEOTHS
>
>
>> I checked the archives but was not sure anyone
>> explained how both of these words appear to come from
>> QEOS, but one has an added I, while the other lacks
>> it. Why the I in QEIOTHS and not in QEOTHS? Are they
>> both adjectives? What is the semantic difference, if
>> any? (One explained them as different as 'divine' is
>> from 'deity.' But that doesn't help much, since I
>> can't think of how those two English words objectively differ.)
>>
>> Mitch Larramore
>> Sugar Land, Texas
>>
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/





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