From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Wed Jun 18 1997 - 18:15:30 EDT
On 18 Jun 97 (08:22:44), lance_crimm@daystar.com wrote:
> I think it is simple and some are complicating matters.
> An article is used and the verse says, "The sower went out to sow.."
Gentlemen, are we not straining at a gnat here? To me the article simply
is a storytelling gambit; as one would say "This sower went out to sow
some seed....".
Jesus started the parable of the rich man and Lazarus with /ANTHRWPOS DE
TIS HN PLUSIOS .... PTWCHOS DE TIS ONOMATI LAZAROS/ (Luke 16:19-20).
Surely the definite article /hO/ has the same narrative style force as
/TIS/ has. Not just "any old" person; this particular one I'm thinking of.
"A certain rich man..": definite or indefinite?
As Greek lacks the indefinite article altogether, sometimes an English
indefinite article is appropriate where the Greek definite article stands.
But an English indefinite article is not always appropriate where no article
at all is found in the Greek. Or am I wrong? Sometimes the Greek is
anarthrous because it is a "headline" (as in our English newspapers); e.g.
/ARChH TOU EUAGGELIOU IHSOU ChRISTOU/ (Mark 1:1). Here we rightly supply the
missing definite article.
Just my $0.02
-- Ben Crick, BA Bristol, 1963 (hons in Theology) <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
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