From: Jonathan Robie (jonathan@texcel.no)
Date: Tue Dec 30 1997 - 20:35:25 EST
Several grammars make the point that Greek often, but not necessarily,
omits the article for abstract nouns, e.g.
Gal 5:22 hO DE KARPOS TOU PNEUMATOS ESTIN AGAPH XARA EIRHNH...
It seems to me that English does the same thing here, translating "love,
joy, peace...", and not "a love, a joy, a peace...". Is it accurate to say
that *both* English and Greek often omit the definite article for abstract
nouns, even though a definite meaning is intended?
I assume that the qualitative interpretation of this would be "lovingness,
joyfulness, peacefulness", and is not really an accurate translation.
Am I anywhere close?
Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
Little Greek Home Page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine
Little Greek 101: http://sunsite.unc.edu/koine/greek/lessons
B-Greek Home Page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek
B-Greek Archives: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek/archives
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:38:44 EDT