[B-Greek] PNEUMA HO THEOS and similar expressions
Anthony Buzzard
anthonybuzzard at mindspring.com
Tue Jun 26 15:25:16 EDT 2007
Jerry, I think you are right "God communicates via spirit." "God is
love" does not mean God is an emotion. "God is light" is not an
equation. It is qualititative.
The absence of the article suggests an adjectival sense as in "the
word was God." The word is fully expressive of God,."goddish"
The word was God certainly does not mean "the Son was God." If it did
we would have "in the beginning was the Son, Son was with God {the
Father] and Son was the Father."
That would be wrong obviously.
Anthony.
At 12:12 PM 6/26/2007, Jerry Austin Reimer wrote:
>Would it be correct to say that because pneuma is anarthrous it tends toward
>qualitative (adjectival) rather than count or even predicate substantive?
>God is pneumatic. God is spiritual. Seems versions (like NIV) are more on
>the side of predicate noun.
>
>Jerry Reimer
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
>[mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Harold Holmyard
>Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 9:06 AM
>To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] PNEUMA HO THEOS and similar expressions
>
>
>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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Anthony Buzzard
www.restorationfellowship.org
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