From: Manolis Nikolaou (aei_didaskomenos@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Apr 13 2002 - 18:02:06 EDT
> Several weeks back I asked the question of why Philadelphia means
> "brotherly love" inspite of the fact that the term is in the feminine
> gender. The consensus response I received was that abstract ideas have no
> regard for the use of gender in determining meanings.
>
> Honestly though, if I were a Greek back when Koine was spoken I would not
> be thinking of "philadelphia" to mean "brotherly love" when the term is in
> the feminine gender. Would it be more proper then to understand that this
> term does not have an exact English equivelant translation since the idea
> of "sisterly love" is foreign to the English language?
>
> If so then I can understand why the term is rendered "brotherly love". Any
> thoughts?
FILANQRWPOS (philanthropist) - FILANQRWPIA (philanthropy)
FILOXENOS (hospitable) - FILOXENIA (hospitality)
FILADELFOS - FILADELFIA
Unless you think that FILANQRWPIA or FILOXENIA have only to do with women,
I think you should accept the fact that FILADELFIA is something one could
feel for his brothers and sisters too. Just have in mind that Greek nouns
coming from adjectives (usually denoting some quality) are almost always
feminine, OK Keith?
Regards,
Manolis Nikolaou
Greece
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