From: David Housholder (73423.2015@compuserve.com)
Date: Fri Dec 29 1995 - 12:40:08 EST
Stephen Carlson asked about Luke 1:1:
>>How many accounts is Luke referring to? Many people, each, have written
>>a separate account; or one account which many people helped to write?
I would think this is similar to the teacher who says to a class: "I want you
all to write a term paper." The teacher would be shocked to receive one huge
multi-authored paper.
Someone will come up with a proper grammatical term for this structure. It is
similar to the use of a plural "your" with something stated singularly. "I want
you [all] to pick up your [plural] pencil [singular]. Usually we understand what
it means, but there are times when it is uncertain. When Paul says, in 1
Corinthians 3:16, NAOS [singular] QEOU ESTE [plural], = "a temple of God y'all
are," he is saying that they all need to realize that the temple is the
fellowshipping worshipping community composed of all the believers.
But what about 1 Cor 6:1? TO SWMA hUMWN NAOS . . . ESTIN. = the body [singular]
of you [plural] is a temple [singular]. Yet here Paul seems to be saying that
the body of each person is a temple.
By the way, we Atlanta folk support the use of "y'all" as a translation of
hUMEIS and "your all's" for hUMWN ("of y'all" may be acceptable too). Northern
English (with the exception of Minnesota where "youse" is the plural form of
"you") has lost precision by eliminating the second person plural (technically,
by eliminating the second person singular, but that gets beyond our scope here).
David Housholder
writing at 12:31 PM on Friday, December 29, 1995
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