[B-Greek] Acts 2:16 - Holy Spirit = TOUTO w/no antecedent
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Nov 3 16:33:41 EST 2006
On Nov 3, 2006, at 2:37 PM, Jason Kerrigan wrote:
> Yes, Carl, you are correct. I am wondering about a
> passage that refers to the Holy Spirit, specifically
> Acts 2:16. Here, the Holy Spirit is referred to with a
> neuter pronoun (TOUTO) despite the fact that there
> is not a neuter antecedent. However, Peter proceeds to
> quote a passage from Joel that does use the neuter
> PNEUMATOS, and therefore I was inquiring as to whether
> or not this noun would determine the gender of the preceeding
> pronoun. However, as someone who is trying to grasp
> various rules of Greek grammar in general, I was hoping
> that there was somekind of universal rule relegating the
> correspondence between the gender of nouns and pronouns.
This is Peter addressing those who have claimed that those who are
proclaiming the gospel in various languages are GLEUKOUS MEMESTWMENOI.
Text: ALLA TOUTO ESTIN TO EIRHMENON DIA TOU PROFHTOU IWHL ...
I don't think this TOUTO refers specifically to the Holy Spirit but
rather to the phenomenon of the speaking. I think that TOUTO here
refers to"what you are seeing and hearing." Certainly the citation
from the prophet Joel goes on to explain what has happened in terms
of Holy Spirit, but nevertheless I don't think that the gender of
TOUTO has anything to do with the gender of PNEUMA -- I think it
simply refers to the phenomenon just witnessed.
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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