[B-Greek] The personal pronoun for he, she and it

Dr. Don Wilkins drdwilkins at sbcglobal.net
Sat Feb 3 16:40:10 EST 2007


I thought that would get a rise out of you, Carl. Seriously, though,  
my question would be whether there are any NT instances of the  
nominative's being used simply because something neutral is needed.  
And the issue (for me, anyway) would not be whether translating it as  
an ordinary 3p pronoun sounds okay, but whether even a weak intensive  
sense has to be ruled out. E.g. I can imagine the possibility of  
someone asking a group of people who the tallest of them is, and  
somebody pointing to a guy and saying, "AUTOS." You could claim that  
as a neutral use, I suppose, but even then it could be argued that  
the speaker has some reason to say "He himself." He could have just  
pointed and said, "ESTIN," or "EKEINOS/hOUTOS." I don't have  
Caragounis' book, so on that point you have me at a disadvantage.  
Granted, there are indications of flux. Certainly much that is  
arguably consistent with the rules of classical prose, and hints of  
later Greek. We also have to account for the fact that some features  
of NT Greek reflect the differences between literary and common  
("vulgar") Greek, rather than language flux. But as far as AUTOS is  
concerned, practically speaking, if we say that it is sometimes  
neutral as a result of flux, how do we objectively determine when?  
(Please correct me if I am misunderstanding you.) Can you think of  
some good examples, one or two where the neutral sense is  
indisputable? My memory is taking a timeout, and maybe when you  
mention one, I'll only be able to say, "Duh!"

Don Wilkins

On Feb 2, 2007, at 4:14 PM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

>
> On Feb 2, 2007, at 2:12 PM, Dr. Don Wilkins wrote:
>
>> IMO AUTOS is not really satisfactory as an ordinary 3rd person
>> pronoun in the NT, either. It is intensive there as well, though the
>> intensity is not always sufficient to affect the translation (a
>> subjective choice by the translator), which might lead one to assume
>> that AUTOS serves as an ordinary pronoun.
>
> You're surely not trying to say, are you, Don, that AUTOS functions  
> ONLY as an intensive pronoun in the Koine of the GNT? Certainly  
> it's intensive in many instances and it's used with the article in  
> the sense "the same" several times; but you wouldn't be denying  
> that it's sometimes used as a third person pronoun in the  
> nominative, would you?
>
> For my part, I think we do well to be cognizant of the fact that  
> the Koine of the GNT represents a language in flux. Usages and  
> constructions and morphological patterns from older and later eras  
> co-exist within it -- as is made abundantly clear in Caragounis'  
> recent volume, which I'm finally enjoying reading, now that it's in  
> the Baker paperback edition.
>
> 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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