[B-Greek] PNEUMA hAGION as a proper name

Rolf Furuli furuli at online.no
Thu May 13 17:03:30 EDT 2010


Dear Blue,

See my comments below:



>Dear Rolf:
>
>
>
>Thanks so much for your thoughts. This seems like an excellent book. 
>I have begun reading it, having found it at



><http://books.google.com/books?id=zCctAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=doctrine+of+the+greek+article+inauthor:middleton&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false>snip
>
>
>
>Getting back to the question at hand, you wrote: <But the
>lack of article may also indicate that the entity
>in question is an "it" and not a "he" or "she,"
>as Middleton implied. If we follow this line of
>reasoning-and I speak on the basis of linguistics
>and not on the basis of theology- I ask: If
>Middleton is correct and the lack of article
>indicates that PNEUMA hAGION in these instances
>is an "it" (influence or function), could not the
>same be true in the other instances where the
>article is found, to the point where PNEUMA
>hAGION always is an "it" and not a "he"?>
>
>
>
I am not sure if I agree. It seems that one of the problems with the 
GNT is that sometimes it is difficult to ascertain just what was in 
the mind of the writer. He is not here for us to ask, *Just what did 
you mean by that phrase?* so we are sometimes thrown upon the wider 
body of writing - to others who supposedly held similar opinions. 
Sometimes this seems to be the only way to obtain a reasonable 
conclusion. Obviously, the ones closer to the time of the writer are 
a better source for comparison.

>
>
>
>When we do this I think it is reasonable to see what the writer of 
>the Gospel of John believed regarding the Holy Spirit. I think one 
>will see he believed the Spirit was more than just an influence or 
>function, but understood him as a Person.

RF:

I agree that we cannot ask the one who wrote the text, and therefore 
we should not attempt to do that. This means that we cannot ask what 
John believed regarding PNEUMA hAGION.  That would also probably 
violate the rules of b-greek, as Carl said: "The matter of "the 
personhood of the Holy Spirit" falls into the category of "general or 
specific hermeneutical or theological issues."

So let us return to the linguistic issue: The original question was 
whether PNEUMA hAGION is a proper name because it lacks the article. 
My answer was that this is possible. Then I turned the issue upside 
down by pointing out that the lack of article linguistically speaking 
could also indicate something impersonal. Then I asked if the use of 
the article could be pragmatic.  In other words: Could all the 
examples of the article with PNEUMA hAGION be anaphoric, which means 
that  PNEUMA hAGION semantically speaking is anarthrous, and the 
article is added because of contextual requirements?

Your task, therefore, is to point to one or more examples where the 
article cannot be pragmatic. This is the linguistic issue!



>snip



>
>
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Blue Harris
>
>



Best regards,

Rolf Furuli


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