weekly recap

[Stephen Jones]

Greek students,

 

On Tuesday night, we got a later start than usual. Thanks for being patient, and especially to Rick for staying up late to tune in!!

 

We reviewed chs. 8 and 9 on prepositions, the eimi verb, and adjectives. We talked through translation #4-6 from exercises 8 and 9, and along the way had a good discussion on the Son of Man.

 

One of the things we noticed is that when a sentence has the “being” verb (eimi) and two nouns in the nominative case, it is a tipoff that one noun is the subject (S) and the other noun is the predicate nominative (PN). For example, kuvriovV ejstin oJ uiJo;V tou: sabbavtou “the Son of Man is Lord…” In this sentence, “Son” is the subject, and Lord is the PN.

 

But how do you know which is the subject and which is the PN? Why don’t we say, “The Lord is the Son of Man”? Wallace in his Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, explains:

 

Since Greek word order is far more flexible than English, this creates a problem: How do we distinguish S from PN if word order is not a clear guide? The general principle for distinguishing S from PN is that the S is the known entity. This principle is valid for both kinds of S-PN constructions. In Greek equative clauses [i.e. with the being verb], the known entity (S) will be distinguished from the PN in one of three ways:

a)      The subject will be a pronoun, whether stated or implied in the verb.

οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός

this is my beloved Son (Mt. 3:17)

b)      The subject will be articular

πνεῦμα ὁ θεός

God is spirit (Jn. 4:24)

c)       The subject will be a proper name.

Ἠλίας ἄνθρωπος ἦν

Elijah was a man (Jam. 5:17)

 

I hope you’ll find this little discussion helpful as I have.

 

Homework: There’s no homework for next time, but keep reviewing your vocab, case ending, and eimi chart.

 

Next week: Chapter 10 is up next. We’ll be climbing the high-dive board and diving into the deep end of the pool. Third declension verbs, here we come! Woohoo!

 

Thanks,

Pastor Stephen