From: Polycarp66@aol.com
Date: Fri Feb 01 2002 - 16:59:48 EST
In a message dated 2/1/2002 3:52:29 PM Eastern Standard Time,
youngman@triad.rr.com writes:
>Specifically, I am interested in the use of TEKNA (children). Often in
>language one uses a "generalized plural" which would refer not of
>necessity to "more than one" but "one or more." For example, one might ask
>an audience, "Do any of you have children?" In which case the term
>"children" is understood as "one or more."
What you have suggested makes sense. I don't recall offhand anything being
said in the grammars regarding this though I did run across something that I
thought was interesting and which almost seems to be the obverse of this.
Wallace (Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, p. 249) in discussing "monadic
nouns" writes
A curious phenomenon has occurred in the English Bible with reference to one
particular monadic noun, DIABOLOS. The KJV translates both DIABOLOS and
DAIMONION as “devil.” Thus in the AV translators’ minds, “devil” was not a
monadic noun. Modern translations have correctly rendered DAIMONION as
“demon” and have, for the most part, recognized that DIABOLOS is monadic
(cf., e.g., 1 Pet 5:8; Rev 20:2). But in John 6:70 modern translations have
fallen into the error of the King James translators. The KJV has “one of you
is a devil.” So does the RSV, NRSV, ASV, NIV, NKJV, and the Jerusalem Bible.
Yet there is only one devil. A typical objection to the rendering “one of you
is <B>the</B> devil” is that this would identify Judas with the devil. Yes,
that is true—on the surface. Obviously that is not what is literally
meant—any more than it is literally true that Peter is Satan (Mark 8:33 and
parallels). The legacy of the KJV still lives on, then, even in places where
it ought not.
The <B> </B> encloses what should be bold.
gfsomsel
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