[B-Greek] Mt 9.18a Indefinite articles

Randall Buth randallbuth at gmail.com
Mon Mar 17 05:50:26 EDT 2008


>TAUTA AUTOU LALOUNTOS AUTOIS IDOU ARCWN hEIS ELQWN
PROSEKUNEI AUTWi LEGWN....

> To take ARCWN hEIS as "one leader" seems awkward in
this context. I note many translations prefer "a
leader/ruler." It would seem then that this is pretty
clearly to be taken as an indefinite article. Why,
since this indefinite use was readily available to
first century Greeks, did they use it in only rare
instances? Obviously ARCWN itself could have been
used, but at the risk of it being understood as
Monadic or Well-Known, etc. As it is quite obvious
from my questions, I only can "think" in English so
many of my questions come from how an American in the
21st century looks at things. But it just seems like
having a sure-enough indefinite article would come in
rather handy now and then.

Mitch Larramore>

not to make your life easier, you will need to think
in Hebrew, too, after getting your lobes
infused with Greek.
Hebrew doesn't have an equivalent to
Greek TIS and alot of the indefinite EIS
usages occur in the gospels where Hebrew idiom
may have played a role.

Randall Buth

-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easier - Progress Further - Remember for Life
randallbuth at gmail.com



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