From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 08 1998 - 09:11:02 EST
<x-flowed>At 8:00 AM -0500 12/8/98, Paul F. Evans wrote:
> Carl,
>
> You wrote:
>
>>but you shouldn't ever see hO AGAQOS hO ANHR.
>
>
> I am not in my office right now so I can't check, but I am almost certain,
> other than the substitution of ANQRWPOS, that Machen actually gives this
> exact
> construction as an example for an attributive set up. I have always been
> confused when I read the GNT when I come across anarthrous nouns and
> articular adjectives trying figure out how to understand them. As basic as
> it is, maybe we (I am too embraced by my ignorance to say "I") could use an
> expert summary of the rules, if such a "summary" is possible! This would
> explain why I do not find many constructions like the one I learned from.
> Of course, I may have nodded off in this class and those strange
> double-visions that dance in your head after a heavy lunch may have
> multiplied the definite articles in the examples I was studying!
I've just had a look at Machen's account of attributive and predicate
positions of the article (pp. 35-37, ##68-74), and I have to say that
I think it's one of the better-written sections of a
less-than-remarkable beginning NT Greek grammar. Here's what he has
in ##72:
"The matter can be summarized as follows:
Attributive Position /hO AGAQOS LOGOS \ = the good word
of the Adjective \hO LOGOS hO AGAQOS/
Predicate Position /hO LOGOS AGAQOS \ = the word is good
of the Adjective \AGAQOS hO LOGOS /
He then adds very sensible notes:
"#73. The student should fix this distinction in his mind by
thoughtful reading aloud of the above and similar phrases, until
AGAQOS hO LOGOS, for example, comes to mean to him, even without
conscious translation, 'good (is) the word, and comes to be
dissociated entirely from the idea 'the good word.' If this advice be
heeded, a solid foundation will have been laid for the mastery of a
large part of Greek syntax.
"#74. It should be observed that the distinction between the
attributive and the predicate position of the adjective can be made
in Greek only when the noun has the article. AGAQOS LOGOS or LOGOS
AGAQOS (the noun here not having the article) may mean either 'a good
word' (attributive) or 'a word is good' (predicate)."
I could go check BDF and other beginning NT Greek textbooks which in
many respects are far superior to Machen, but I doubt if I could find
a clearer and more precise statement on this item of standard ancient
Greek grammar, for that matter an item of grammar that bears equally
upon classical Attic and upon Hellenistic Koine Greek.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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