Re: 1 Corinthians 10: 20

Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Mon, 28 Jul 1997 06:01:22 -0400

At 2:41 PM -0400 7/27/97, GentlJoe@aol.com wrote:
>This may be elementary for some, but I am having a problem with this verse,
>which is, according to Scrivner: all oti a thuei ta ethne daimonioij thuei
>kai ou thew ou thelo de umaj koinonouj ton daimonion ginesthai. My
>difficulty is with the plural ta ethne, "the nation", and its attachment to
>thue, "it sacrifices", which is 3rd person singular. Does this mean that the
>Gentile nations are to understood as a single entity? This would seem to
>correspond with the fact that nearly all the Mediterranean world, though
>composed of many ethnic groups, was controlled by Rome. Any illumination
>would be greatly appreciated.

By now this question has probably already been answered, but if not: neuter
plural subjects regularly take singular verbs in classical Attic and
earlier Greek. That rule is observed by most Koine writers also, although
one will sometimes see a plural verb with a neuter plural subject.
Underlying this practice is probably a view of that short-A ending (which
appears as Eta as result of vowel contraction in the neuter-plurals in Eta)
as a collectivity. This is idiomatic, but it is standard ancient Greek.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/