From: Polycarp66@aol.com
Date: Wed Jan 30 2002 - 08:25:56 EST
In a message dated 1/30/2002 7:05:49 AM Eastern Standard Time,
edotte@optonline.net writes:
>John 15:26, John 16:7-8, and John 16:13-14 contain references to the
>spirit of truth. The word PNEUMA is, of course, neuter in gender and a
>very fundamental rule in Biblical Greek is words related to nouns are
>declined to agree with their antecedents. The above mentioned verses
>however seem to defy that convention. An example is verse 13 where the
>text is EKEINOS TO PNEUMA. Clearly this is a masculine demonstrative
>pronoun with a neuter article and a neuter noun. Moreover, the verbs in
>these verses also are masculine. An example, again, is verse 13 EKEINOS TO
>PNEUMA THS ALHQEIAS ODHGSEI.
So beyond the obvious theological implications, is there some exception to
a rule that justifies this non-agreement? I do know that some exceptions
exist with agreement of number but not gender. Also, other than the
obvious theological possibilities, are there any other compelling reasons
to construct a sentence in this manor?
This is an example of what is known as constructio ad sensum. This is from
Wallace, p. 330
2) Constructio ad Sensum
A small group of demonstrative pronouns involve a natural agreement with
their antecedents that overrides strict grammatical concord. As such, they
are illustrations of constructions according to sense (constructio ad
sensum). This natural agreement may involve gender or, much more rarely,
number. Frequently, the agreement is conceptual only, since the pronoun
refers to a phrase or clause rather than a noun or other substantive. As
might be expected, not a few of these instances are debatable and
exegetically significant.
gfsomsel
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