[b-greek] RE: Greek plural of proper names

From: Vincent M. Setterholm (Vincents@minn.net)
Date: Mon Apr 08 2002 - 21:33:02 EDT


Actually, most Greek names (including Peter and Paul) ARE declinable. It is
usually names borrowed from other languages (notably hebrew/semitic
languages) just as David, Jerusalem, etc. that have only one form (are
indeclinable).

Declination in greek is not limited to singluar vs. plural, but also covers
what case the noun is in. Simplified it looks something like this: If
Peter is the subject of the clause, his name would be spelled PETROS, if he
is the object of a verb it would be PETRON, if he was the indirect object
his name would be spelled PETRWi, if he is being addressed in direct speach,
it would be spelled PETRE, or if Peter is functioning possessively his name
would be spelled PETROU. All of these forms appear in the Bible.

This is what it means to decline a noun... to be able to put a noun in
different cases. Foreign names, like Jerusalem, do not always get converted
into the Greek case system, so they will be spelled the same way no matter
what syntactical function the word has in the sentence.

Vincent Setterholm



-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Goodhart [mailto:bobgoodhart@msn.com]
Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 2:56 PM
To: Biblical Greek
Subject: [b-greek] Greek plural of proper names


The Greek lexicons note that proper names (such as Paul and Peter) are
indeclensable. Does this mean there is no difference between the singular
and plural in the spelling of a proper name? For example, in English I
might say, "The name Nigel is not a common name in the United States, but
at a recent wedding there were five Nigels there. We just add the "s" to
change the singular to plural. But in Greek is there any such change for
proper nouns or is it like our word "Sheep" where the spelling is the same
for singular and plural?

Thank you for your help.

Bob Goodhart

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