Good Use of AI: Classics for NT folk

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Jonathan Robie
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Good Use of AI: Classics for NT folk

Post by Jonathan Robie »

I was missing part of this sentence from the Nichomachean Ethics, so I asked GPT to explain this to someone who knows NT Greek but hasn't read much Classical Greek.

Here's what I asked:
I'm better at NT greek than this ;-> help me understand each phrase.
Here's what it gave me - I'll have to try this for Homer next ...
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics III.6 (1113a14–15) — Phrase-by-Phrase

Text
ἡ δ᾽ ἀρετὴ ἕξις προαιρετικὴ, ἐν μεσότητι οὖσα τῇ πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὡρισμένη λόγῳ καὶ ᾧ ἂν ὁ φρόνιμος ὁρίσειεν.
Phrase by phrase

ἡ δ᾽ ἀρετὴ
  • hē d’ aretē = “Now virtue…”
  • ἀρετή = virtue, excellence (broad sense, not only “moral”)
  • δέ = transitional particle (“and / but / now”)
ἕξις προαιρετικὴ
  • hexis proairetikē = “a disposition concerned with choice”
  • ἕξις = settled state / habit / disposition (something you “have” steadily)
  • προαιρετική (from προαίρεσις) = pertaining to deliberate choice / decision
ἐν μεσότητι οὖσα τῇ πρὸς ἡμᾶς
  • en mesotēti ousa tē pros hēmas = “being in a mean, relative to us”
  • ἐν μεσότητι = “in a mean / middle point” (not a strict average, but the right balance)
  • οὖσα = participle of εἰμί, “being”
  • τῇ πρὸς ἡμᾶς = “the [mean] relative to us” (person- and situation-relative)
ὡρισμένη λόγῳ
  • hōrismenē logō = “defined by reason”
  • ὡρισμένη = perfect passive participle of ὁρίζω (“to define, mark off, set a boundary”)
  • λόγῳ (dat.) = “by reason / rational account”
καὶ ᾧ ἂν ὁ φρόνιμος ὁρίσειεν
  • kai hō(i) an ho phronimos horiseien = “and as the practically wise person would define it”
  • φρόνιμος = prudent / practically wise
  • ὁρίσειεν = aorist optative of ὁρίζω (“would define / would determine”)
  • ἄν + optative = potential construction (“would”)
Putting it together
Virtue is a settled disposition concerned with deliberate choice, being a mean relative to us, defined by reason and as the practically wise person would define it.”
NT Greek touchpoints (to feel the words)
  • ἕξις (disposition/habit): cf. Heb 5:14 — faculties “trained” (γεγυμνασμένα) to discern good/evil.
  • προαίρεσις (deliberate choice): stronger/technical vs. NT αἱρέομαι “choose”; emphasizes rational, moral decision.
  • μεσότης (mean): no direct NT term; think of Phil 4:5 τὸ ἐπιεικὲς (gentleness/moderation).
  • ὁρίζω (define/appoint): Acts 17:26, 31 — God “appointed/defined” times and a day (ὁρίσας… ἡμέραν ὥρισεν).
  • φρόνιμος (wise/prudent): Matt 7:24; 25:2 — the “wise” builder/virgins (φρόνιμοι)—practical wisdom in action.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Alex Hopkins
Posts: 61
Joined: June 10th, 2011, 7:15 am

Re: Good Use of AI: Classics for NT folk

Post by Alex Hopkins »

Hi Jonathan,

Let me start with an aside: it's been quite a while since I looked at BGreek; thanks for your role in keeping it going.

Your post on AI caught my eye. I think it's an important post and important topic.

A friend, recently returned from Ephesus, asked me to translate for him the Greek of a bilingual (Greek and Latin) inscription he'd seen, providing me with a single photograph. I don't think he had any idea of what his request entailed. Just deciphering the letters from one photograph and then determining the word divisions was going to take considerable time. Then there'd be wrestling with itacisms, vocabulary new to me, Latin loans, administrative formulae, variant meanings of words in an unknown administrative context, etc.

I did what any reasonable person would do; I turned to the Internet. I searched on a few Latin words I had transcribed from the photo, and from this found a complete transcription of the document. It can be seen at https://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/250659 .

Having got that far, it struck me that it would be interesting to see how ChatGPT would go with the Greek. Within seconds it responded with a plausible translation. I'm not aware of any published translation, and ChatGPT confirmed the translation as its own. Impressive, so far.

But it was then time to look more closely. So I started at the beginning, a very good place to start, and asked "Let's look at τὴν τειμὴν τῆς Ἀσίας καὶ ὅλης τῆς ἐπαρχίας τὸ ἀξίωμα, which you've translated as 'the honor of Asia and of the whole province, the dignity'. The translation sounds a bit odd, a bit un-English. On your view, how does ἀξίωμα fit into the syntax? "

ChatGPT then gave a response too long to give here, but it is noteworthy that it offered two explanations, one being that a double object construction was involved, and, its preferred reading, that "τὸ ἀξίωμα stands in apposition to τὴν τειμὴν". This was dressed up with some extras, the observation of "the paired rhetorical force of τιμή and ἀξίωμα — almost a hendiadys ('honor and rank' → 'honorable rank')". My point is not to question what "almost a hendiadys" might mean but to underscore that the answer included information which, though irrelevant to the answer about the syntax, made that answer sound all the more weighty and plausible.

Assured of its own explanation, it went on, "Would you like me to show a few parallel phrases from other 2nd–3rd century inscriptions that use this same appositional τιμή + ἀξίωμα pairing? They make the pattern instantly clear. "

However, I declined the offer: "I wondered if you were taking it as appositional. But a much simpler syntactical understanding is to take ἀξίωμα as the head noun of the phrase ὅλης τῆς ἐπαρχίας. So τὴν τειμὴν τῆς Ἀσίας καὶ ὅλης τῆς ἐπαρχίας τὸ ἀξίωμα is 'the honour of Asia and the dignity of the whole province', with a word order that is chiastic [A: τὴν τειμὴν B: τῆς Ἀσίας B: ὅλης τῆς ἐπαρχίας A: τὸ ἀξίωμα]. Isn't that a better way of viewing it? "

Again, a long answer. I give only the conclusion: "I completely agree — reading it as “the honor of Asia and the dignity of the whole province” is not only grammatically sound but superior rhetorically and stylistically. You caught an elegant bit of epigraphic artistry there."

I could multiply examples. What I think is worth emphasizing is that this AI tool is so sophisticated that it is able to give credible translations and even credible justifications of those translations, full of grammatical terminology and stylistic observations. But its answers must be carefully examined, because they're not always right. (I won't detail other syntactical tests or the parsing tests I've given it, some of which it passed, some of which it failed.)

I find the prospect of AI working with Classical and NT Greek an exciting one, and it is already able to give help. At the same time, I'm wary, because it is also able to frame answers with greater confidence than accuracy. There is a danger that, just as some people used to assure others that they knew the meaning of a NT passage because they had consulted an interlinear, now they will be able to use AI to convince others of the credibility of their interpretations, relying on grammatical explanations that can be generated almost instantaneously. But the graver danger that frightens me still more is this: that I may accept the plausible answer, without really wrestling sufficiently with the Greek.

Alex Hopkins
Melbourne, Australia
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