From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Thu Jan 01 1998 - 10:11:53 EST
Praise the Lord on New Year's Day for a question about the article that I
think I can answer!
At 8:45 AM -0600 1/1/98, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>While we are on the subject of things I don't understand about the article,
>I have two more questions:
>
>1. TOIS TOU
>
>In Luke 2:49, Jesus says:
>
>Luke 2:49 OUK HDEITE hOTI EN TOIS TOU PATROS MOU DEI EINAI ME?
>
>How does this get translated into "in my father's house"? How is TOIS to be
>understood in this context?
In this context it is exactly what it is in your #2 below: neuter plural
dative article turning TOU PATROS MOU into a substantive meaning "the
things of my father"--what traditional versions convey by "my father's
business."
>2. TA TOU
>
>In many places, the neuter plural article seems to mean "the things" in
>general, without any antecedent, e.g.:
>
>Matt 16:23 hOTI OU FRONEIS TA TOU QEOU ALLA TA TWN ANQRWPWN
>Matt 22:21 APODODE OUN TA KAISAROS KAISARI KAI TA TOU QEOU TWi QEWi
>Rom 2:14 hOTAN GAR EQNH TA MH NOMON ECONTA FUSEI TA TOU NOMOU POIWSIN
>Rom 8:5 hOI GAR KATA SARKA ONTES TA THS SARKOS FRONOUSIN, hOI DE KATA
>PENUMA TA TOU PNEUMATOS
>1Cor 2:11 TIS GAR OIDEN ANQRWPWN TA TOU ANQRWPOU EI MH TO PNEUMA TOU
>ANQRWPOU TO EN AUTWi? hOUTOS KAI TA TOU QEOU OUDEIS EGNWKEN EI MH TO PNEUMA
>TOU QEOU.
>
>I don't remember seeing a discussion of this in the grammars when I read
>through the sections on the article. Is there a good discussion of this
>somewhere? Am I interpreting it correctly?
Yep, you got it.
I think it is there, although I don't have any grammar on hand at home with
me. Smyth certainly ought to cover it, and any grammar that DOESN'T cover
it is not worth having. It is the use of the article with any expression to
create a substantive. I referred the other day to Bruno Snell's article in
_Die Entdeckung des Geistes_ on "Discovery of the Article" (we'd probably
say "Invention" of the article)--that's a very nice discussion of how
Heraclitus uses the article with almost any part of speech or expression to
turn it into a noun that can be manipulated with verbs and prepositions.
hOI NUN, hOI TOTE "Those (who live) now," "those (who were living) then (=
of that time)"
hOI EN TOIS ORESI, hOI EN TWi LIMENI "those (who are) in the mountains,"
"those (who are) in the harbor"
TA STRATHGIKA "things having to do with generals"
TA TOU STRATHGOU "things of/belonging to the general"
TO AGAQON, TO KALON "the good," "the beautiful"
TO TI HN EINAI "the being what it was (is)"
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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