[B-Greek] John 1:1c

kgraham0938 at comcast.net kgraham0938 at comcast.net
Wed Jul 5 19:00:40 EDT 2006


Hello Rolf, thanks for your reply.  Yesterday was a national holiday so I could play around on line, today I had to work so I apologize for the late response.

> Dear Kelton, 
> 
> In a study of lexical semantics it is profitable to use Ogden´s triangle og 
> signification with "word," "concept," and "reference" at the three corners. 
> It is particularly important to distinguish between the "concept" (in the 
> minds of native speakers) of a word and its "reference" (the thing in the 
> world denoted by the word). 

Response: I remember you bringing this up on B-Hebrew in our discussion of OLAM.  My question would be how do you relate this to which words are count nouns and which ones are not?
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Rolf:Regarding "reference," Moises Silva (Biblical 
> Words and their Meaning: An Introduction to Lexical Semantics 1994, p. 107) 
> compares four words which are different as to reference: 1) Plato (fully 
> referential), 2) law (mostly referential, 3) cold (partly referential), and 
> 4) beautiful (non-referential). Example 4) can be put in the group "uncount 
> nouns" where we find qualities, substances, and processes. 

Response: Now beautiful is not a noun that is an adjective so I don't think that would apply.   And are you arguing that if a noun is referential then it is a count noun?  
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> As for QEOS, I would say that in all its occurrences in the LXX and the NT 
> it is fully referential. So if anyone would argue that this is not the case 
> in John 1:1c, because here QEOS is just a quality, that would be 
> exceptional. For claims of something exceptional evidence is needed. The 
> evidence should include examples of fully referential nouns that completely 
> loose their substantival nature and become adjectives, and examples showing 
> that this can be the case with the noun QEOS. 

Response: I would argue that 2 Maccabees 7:37 is an example of QEOS being used purely qualitatively.

evgw. de, kaqa,per oi` avdelfoi, kai. sw/ma kai. yuch.n prodi,dwmi peri. tw/n patri,wn no,mwn evpikalou,menoj to.n qeo.n i[lewj tacu. tw/| e;qnei gene,sqai kai. se. meta. evtasmw/n kai. masti,gwn evxomologh,sasqai dio,ti mo,noj auvto.j qeo,j evstin 
The last line here MONOS AUTOS QEOS I would argue is neither definite nor indefinite but qualitative, I am planning on putting this verse by itself on B - Greek and seeing what others say.
--
Kelton Graham 
KGRAHAM0938 at comcast.net


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