From: clayton stirling bartholomew (c.s.bartholomew@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sun Feb 08 1998 - 06:44:06 EST
John Reece wrote:
>
> In terms of Greek grammar, what is there to preclude translating THS
> PROFHTEIAS in Revelation 19:10 the same way it is translated in 1:3 and
> in 22:7,10,18,19?
I think this question raises the issue of the relationship between the use of
the article in NT Greek and "definiteness" as it is understood in English. If
one studies the distribution of the article in NT Greek, one quickly discovers
that a substantive without the article can be definite. It appears from this
example in R 19:10 that a substantive with an article can also stand for an
abstraction (prophecy), rather than a single specific identifiable item
(the/this prophecy). This would odd if it occurred in English.
The key to all of this is disengaging oneself from the rules of English, in
this case the way English uses the article and treating the K. Greek article
as different item all together. If one looks at the Greek article from Homer
down to the late Koine period one discovers that the overlap in function
between the English and the Greek article is not all that great.
This does not really answer your question however, since I have not put forth
an argument supporting the translation of THS PROFHTEIAS in Revelation 19:10
as the abstract "prophecy". I leave that to the experts who seem to be taking
Sunday off from b-greek.
-- Clayton Stirling Bartholomew Three Tree Point P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062
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