…Theologians study their holy books in minute detail and sometimes base their dogmas on a few words they find here and there in such books. And I amuse myself by occasionally by comparing such dogmas with the actual words on which they are supposed to be based. I am interested in Mathew 1:20. Below is the Greek and also a literal translation, word for word, with the words in the same order as in the original Greek. (the translation is taken from an Interlinear New Testament-I do not know any Greek)
…I am not sure whether ancient Greek had articles. But in any case, there is no article to be seen before the word “spirit”.
Based only on the words above, and not on any theological principles, based themselves on various other passages and ideas, would the indefinite article of “a” put before word “spirit” be a reasonable translation into English? Does ancient Greek
have definite articles? Does it have indefinite articles? So would “begotten by a holy spirit” be a reasonable translation?
…Thanks to anyone who feels like helping me with my hobby of theological research.
Thanks to anyone who feels like helping me with my hobby of theological research.
You will probably not see this as helpful but the biggest help anyone can offer you is to say that before you can ask meaningful questions about a Greek text you have to learn Greek. Lots of people here will help you with that.
I see that while I was writing this Lukas has helpfully pointed you to a recent discussion of the point you raise. As you will see the question is not straightforward and without any Greek you will find it near impossible to take a position.
Thanks Lukas, that was a link to a very complicated interchange of ideas on the same line of the N.T. that I asked about. I read the greater part of it, and although I naturally did not understand it all, I could get a pretty good idea of what they were talking about. However, the scope of that subject was enormously greater than the scope of my question. I purposely limited my questions to a very narrow scope. I asked whether ancient Greek had a definite article, whether it had an indefinite article, and whether “begotten by a holy spirit” would be a reasonable translation or the Greek in question. I specifically said that I was not asking about the meaning of the Greek words on the basis of the entire N.T. If some one had asked me the same questions regarding several words in Latin, I could have very easily answered them, and they would have had no difficulty in understanding my reply.
Years ago, I was sharing the cockpit with a Jehovah’s witness (or 7th Day Adventist, if you prefer). Your question was his opening salvo in an effort to proselytise. I declined to answer.
Wise. I’ve been reading Pratum Spirituale and the heretics all come to supernaturally bad ends, including a bishop that is said to recapitulate Arius. He winds up feet up in the air and head down the sewer. (Did he tumble in or evacuate himself into inversion? If mwh wants the story for his Ahikar collection, I can post it.)
The answers to your questions are, yes, ancient Greek has a definite article; no, ancient Greek does not have an indefinite article; and no “begotten by a holy spirit” is not a reasonable translation of the words in question, though probably not far from accurate. But you would need to learn to understand the issues. Sorry.
But πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον ἔχει in Mark 3:30 means that he had an unclean spirit. There’s obviously no language reason for the indefinite article in one place and not the other, only context, and we shouldn’t pretend that there is some deep mystery about it.
No, no mystery, simply context and common sense. However, I think it’s valuable to note that the lack of the article in Greek does not necessarily map to the use of the indefinite article in English.