[B-Greek] PNEUMA HO THEOS and similar expressions

Harold Holmyard hholmyard3 at earthlink.net
Tue Jun 26 12:06:17 EDT 2007


Dear Jonathan and Kramer,
> OK, let me try to dredge my memory, and let the experts correct me or 
> fill in.
>
> I think there's two things going on here. When a subject and predicate, 
> both nouns, are joined by a form of ESTIN like this, the subject 
> normally has the article, the predicate does not.
>
> In Greek, as in English, both the subject and the predicate are 
> nominative, so the cases do not distinguish subject from predicate. 
> Instead, the article is used to identify the subject: the noun with the 
> article is the subject, the noun without the article is the predicate.
>
> I think that's the primary significance of the presence or absence of 
> the article in these constructions, but it's also true that the 
> predicate noun, in Greek or in English, often comes across as 
> qualitative - in your examples, God is not "a love" or "the love", God 
> is love. God is not "a light" or "the light", God is light. I remember 
> seeing similar examples where a particular person is not "a king" or 
> "the king", but simply king.
>   

HH: Right, but in English in many contexts, we would say, "He is king 
(over us, over the land, etc.)." We could also say in some 
circumstances, "He is a king." We would not say, "He is thief." In this 
type of sentence "thief" is a count noun, not a qualitative noun, so we 
would say, "He is a thief." In John 4:24 it is a matter of 
interpretation whether PNEUMA ("Spirit") is to be seen as a count noun 
or a qualitative noun. The King James Version took it as a count noun:

King James Version: John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth.

HH: The modern versions are taking it as a qualitative noun:

New International Version: John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers 
must worship in spirit and in truth.”

New Revised Standard Version: God is spirit, and those who worship him 
must worship in spirit and truth.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible: God is spirit, and those who worship 
Him must worship in spirit and truth.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard

>   





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