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Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 11th, 2020, 5:44 am
by Gustav Berloty
Hello,
First, here is John 10:22 :
Ἐγένετο τότε τὰ ἐνκαίνια ἐν τοῖς Ἰεροσολύμοις· χειμὼν ἦν,
(NA27)
What surprise me is the fact that Jerusalem is in the plural :
ἐν τοῖς Ἰεροσολύμοις
I don’t understand that plural at all !
Could someone help me with that please ?
Gustav.
Re: Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 11th, 2020, 9:39 am
by Barry Hofstetter
Names of cities in ancient Greek are often in the Plural, e.g,, Ἀθῆναι, Athens. Because it's borrowed from a Semitic language, it has both singular feminine forms and neuter plural forms in the NT.
Re: Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 11th, 2020, 7:56 pm
by Gustav Berloty
Oh ok thanks, but when you say :
it's borrowed from a Semitic language
you mean the whole ancien Greek (attic, koine, etc...) language is borrowed from a Semitic language, or only the N.T ancien Greek ?
Would you have some ressources explaining that more deeply ?
Re: Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 11th, 2020, 8:42 pm
by Stephen Carlson
Gustav Berloty wrote: ↑December 11th, 2020, 7:56 pm
Oh ok thanks, but when you say :
it's borrowed from a Semitic language
you mean the whole ancien Greek (attic, koine, etc...) language is borrowed from a Semitic language, or only the N.T ancien Greek ?
Would you have some ressources explaining that more deeply ?
No, just the name
Jerusalem.
Re: Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 12th, 2020, 6:27 am
by Barry Hofstetter
Gustav Berloty wrote: ↑December 11th, 2020, 7:56 pm
Oh ok thanks, but when you say :
it's borrowed from a Semitic language
you mean the whole ancien Greek (attic, koine, etc...) language is borrowed from a Semitic language, or only the N.T ancien Greek ?
Would you have some ressources explaining that more deeply ?
Of course, I meant neither. As Stephen pointed out, the antecedent of "its" is only the word Jerusalem.
Re: Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 12th, 2020, 1:40 pm
by Gustav Berloty
Ok
Then,
Names of cities in ancient Greek are often in the Plural, e.g,, Ἀθῆναι, Athens.
is there any reason for this ? (it’s maybe a hard or crazy question sorry)
And about :
it has both singular feminine forms and neuter plural forms in the NT
I have again those following questions:
Is there any difference in meaning between those two forms ? And more generally between the singular form of a city and its plural ?
(My answers now to these questions is: I don’t think so.
But confirmations would be helpful.)
Thanks for any help.
Re: Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 13th, 2020, 10:34 am
by Barry Hofstetter
Gustav Berloty wrote: ↑December 12th, 2020, 1:40 pm
Ok
Then,
Names of cities in ancient Greek are often in the Plural, e.g,, Ἀθῆναι, Athens.
is there any reason for this ? (it’s maybe a hard or crazy question sorry)
And about :
it has both singular feminine forms and neuter plural forms in the NT
I have again those following questions:
Is there any difference in meaning between those two forms ? And more generally between the singular form of a city and its plural ?
(My answers now to these questions is: I don’t think so.
But confirmations would be helpful.)
Thanks for any help.
1) It's one of those features of the language that you just learn when learning the language. I've never seen a "reason" proposed.
2) There is no difference in meaning. It's what we call a "formal" distinction, i.e., a distinction in form only.
Re: Jerusalem in plural form in John 10:22 ??
Posted: December 13th, 2020, 1:03 pm
by Gustav Berloty
Nice, thanks a lot!