[B-Greek] Eph 6:17 hO and gender agreement

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 5 08:16:52 EST 2007


While you may appeal to the concept of a frozen expression, this is not quite correct.  Note that in Eph 6.17 this is not a question of giving a translation of a phrase in another language, but rather an interpretation.  

Mt 27.33 KAI ELQONTES EIS TOPON LEGOMENON GOLGOQA hO ESTIN KRANIOU TOPOS

It seems to support your concept that this is a frozen expression, does it not?  Look again.  GOLGOQA with which one would expect it to agree is fem and would thus seem to support your position.  KRANIOU TOPOS is masc in TOPOS, but neut in KRANIOU.  The neut hO could well be an assimilation to KRANIOU which immediately follows it.

Cf. Lk 2.11  hOTI ETEXQH hUMIN SHMERON SWTHR hOS ESTIN XRISTOS KURIOS EN POLEI DAUID

Here both SWTHR, with which one would expect the relative to agree, and XRISTOS are both masc and voilá, the relative is also masc.  If hO ESTIN were a frozen expression which is therefore not going to vary from one context to another the one would expect that the fact that it is flanked by two masc terms would have no effect upon it -- but it does.
 
george
gfsomsel
_________



----- Original Message ----
From: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>
To: B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2007 2:37:49 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Eph 6:17 hO and gender agreement


You are misrepresenting what Carl stated. He gave two options, not one.

We were talking about the fixed phrase hO ESTIN. So, let me repeat the examples I gave, so you can 
have another chance of looking at them:

Mrk 12:42 EBALEN LEPTA DUO, hO ESTIN KODRANTHS (that is)
Mrk 15:16 APHGAGON AUTON ESW THS AULHS, hO ESTIN PRAITWRION (that is)
Mrk 15:42 HN PARASKEUH, hO ESTIN PROSABBATON (that is)
Eph 5:5 H PLEONEKTHS, hO ESTIN EIDWLOLATRHS (that is)
Col 1:24 hUPER TOU SWMATOS AUTOU, hO ESTIN hH EKKLHSIA (that is)

Notice how the hO as part of "hO ESTIN" is neither attracted to the following noun, nor does it 
agree with an antecedent noun, but rather with an antecedent concept or phrase.
That is why I prefer to go with Carl's first option rather than the second as he stated it: "In my 
view the hO\ as neuter relative either (a) refers to the whole idea of THN MACAIRAN TOU PNEUMATOS or 
(b)..."

Iver Larsen

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