[B-Greek] Word formation--QEOPNEUSTOS in 2 Timothy 3:16

Leonard Jayawardena leonardj at live.com
Wed Jul 29 23:34:45 EDT 2009


(I am resending this post as I omitted to copy it to B-Greek the first time I sent it.)
 
 
Thanks for the information. I visited the website you mentioned but the link to Part III of Smyth's book--Word Formation, the part I am most interested in and links to certain other sections too, do not work (at least when I click them). 
 
It is customarily stated in literature on biblical inspiration that QEOPNEUSTOs is a compound of QEOS and PNEW. Is it strictly correct in view of what you have written?  
 
Here's an extract from an article titled "Biblical Inspiration in 2 Timothy 3:16" by H. Wayne House, which I found on the Web (available at www.hwhouse.com): 
 
Quote 
 
Words that are compounded with -pneustos are called verbal adjectives and are formed from verb stems. In the broadest sense, they are participles, since they partake of both verbal and adjectival qualities and their basic idea is passive. To understand how [QEOPNEUSTOS] was formed, one must observe that verbal adjectives have the ending -to" [sic] added to the verb stem of the first or second aorist passive. Then -tos is joined to penu- [sic], which is the first aorist stem of [PNEW]. Since [PNEW] has an epsilon as a short final vowel, a sigma is united to the aorist passive stem, forming [PNEUS]. Then -tos is added to the first aorist stem and compounded with [THEOS]. 
 
End of quote 
 
Please let me have your comments on the above extract. The third and fourth sentences of the extract need, I think, some clarification partly because of the apparent typo in the third and partly because the fourth sentence does not smoothly follow on the second. As I understand, what he says is that verbal adjectives have the ending TOS added to the verb stem of the first or second aorist passive. In the case under consideration, TOS is joined to PNEU, the first aorist stem of PNEW.  
 
 
Leonard Jayawardena

----------------------------------------
> CC: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> From: cwconrad2 at mac.com
> To: leonardj at live.com
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Etymology of QEOPNEUSTOS in 2 Timothy 3:16
> Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:16:43 -0400
>
>
> On Jul 28, 2009, at 10:24 PM, Leonard Jayawardena wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Thank you to all three of you for the replies.
>>
>> What I am really looking for is not the semantic aspect of the
>> origin of QEOPNEUSTOS--now that some views have been expressed on
>> this I, too, will give my view in another post--rather the
>> morphological process whereby QEO-PNEU-STOS is derived from QEOS and
>> PNEW. Was I correct in using the word "etymology" for what I wanted?
>> Specifically I wish to know the following:
>
> I wondered at the outset whether this wasn't what you really wanted to
> find out., rather than etymology.
>
>>
>> (1) How does the sigma of QEOS come to be dropped?
>
> The -S- is a nominative ending, not part of the word stem; QEO- is the
> stem.
>
>> (2) How does PNEW become PNEU?
>
> The root of this verb is PNEf/PNEU ("f" representing digamma, the
> archaic consonantal "w", while U is the vocalic form); PNEf- will be
> used with a follwoing consonant, "f" with a following vowel -- but the
> digamma evanesced in very early Greek history.
>
>> (3) Why is a sigma inserted between PNEU and the TOS ending?
>
> -TO- is a suffix used with verbal stems to form verbal adjectives in
> TOS/ON; I think (but am not sure) that the --S- is a euphonic
> consonant to facilitate pronunciation.
>
> Of course, knowing this does not provide any particular insight into
> the usage of the word.
>
> If you're really interested in all this, there's a great deal to
> learn; the whole topic of Greek phonology (Smyth, Part I) and then the
> whole business of word-formation (Smyth, Part III). You really ought
> to own your own hardback copy of Smyth -- there's scarcely any more
> valuable reference work for ancient Greek grammar that's really handy;
> but you can consult the online version at Perseus, however awkward it
> may be:
> http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0007
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
>
>
>
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