[B-Greek] Absent Definite Article strips Personality from The Holy Spirit
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Mon Jun 15 17:29:38 EDT 2009
On Jun 15, 2009, at 5:02 PM, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>
> On Jun 15, 2009, at 1:12 PM, Vasileios Tsialas wrote:
>
>> I forgot to
>> say that the most elementary thing is that the word “spirit” is
>> neuter and
>> means “the thing blown, wind”
>
> Are you suggesting that "wind" would be a useful semantic prototype
> for PNEUMA in the GNT?
>
> Take a look at BDAG under PNEUMA. The overwhelmingly predominate use
> in the GNT is for a conscious agent of some sort. Not some inanimate
> force.
Yes; even when PNEUMA means "wind," Jesus speaks of it in John's
gospel as having a will of its own:
John 3:8 τὸ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ καὶ
τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ ἀκούεις, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ
οἶδας πόθεν ἔρχεται
TO PNEUMA hOPOU QELEI PNEI KAI THN FWNHN AUTOU AKOUEIS, ALL' OUK OIDAS
POQEN ERCETAI
Some PNEUMATA, moreover, are AKAQARTA,
I'm not sure that a dichotomy of "conscious agent of some sort" and
"inanimate force" is adequate for categorization of GNT usages of
PNEUMA. It might come naturally to 21st-century sensibilities to to
draw a distinction between "persons" and "things," but I wonder if it
is appropriate to attribute the same sensibility to the authors of the
GNT.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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