[B-Greek] thelus -vs- gune
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Sep 1 07:30:15 EDT 2006
On Thursday, August 31, 2006, at 11:26PM, Harold Holmyard <hholmyard at ont.com> wrote:
>Dear Seth,
>
>>Can you tell me the difference between the two greek words for women "thelus" and "gune".
>>
>> It would seem from studying the new testament that thelus is all women generally speaking and gune is more specifically a women that is in submission to someone, wither it be her Husband, parents, God Etc..
>>
>> However, sometimes it does not make sense why "gune" is used over "thelus".
>> Can anyone make head and tails of this for me?
>>
>> Also when should "gune" be translated or mean wife as opposed to just woman?
>>
>> Are there any rules on this?
>>
>> Thanks for any help.
>>
>>
>
>HH: QHLUS occurs only 5 times in the NT and 36 times in the Greek OT.
>GUNH oc
curs 967 times in the Greek OT and 215 times in the NT. The first
>word seems to have a primary meaning of "female." It is especially
>prevalent in the phrase "male and female." It usage is almost always
>where there is a stress on the gender of the woman. GUNH is the more
>all-purpose word for "woman," though it often means "wife." "Bride" is
>suggested as a possible meaning in a few cases.
Just to add to what Harold has said:
It should be noted that QHLUS/QHLEIA/QHLU is an adjective, not primarily a noun, although it can be used substantivally. It really does correspond to the English adjective (which can also be used substantivally), "female," in that it is GENDER-specific but not SPECIES-specific: it is biological and refers to the female of any species. GUNH, on the other hand, refers in several senses to (1) an adult human woman, (2) a married woman/wife, (3) a newly-married woman/bride.
As an adjective QHLUS/QHLEIA/QHLU corresponds to ARSHN/ARSEN (2-termination adjective), while the noun GUNH corresponds rather to the noun ANHR (adult human male).
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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