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Re: Addendum: a holy spirit

From:Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Date:Saturday, December 4, 2004, 7:15
On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 01:14:36 -0500, Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
> (of course there is no definite article in the Latin, but the capitalization > may help show an intention, at least on the part of my editor. Is there a > definite article in the Greek?)
Greek does have a definite article, if that's what you are asking.
> Lk 1:15 ...et Spiritu sancto replebitur adhuc ex utero matris suae. " "And > by [a/the] holy Spirit he will be filled even from his mother's womb."
...kai pneumatos hagiou plêsthêsetai eti ek koilias mêtros autou "and of holy spirit he will be filled even from his mother's womb."
> Lk 1:35 Et respondens angelus dixit ei: Spiritus sanctus superveniet in te. > "And the angel, responding, said to her, "[a/the] holy Spirit will come upon > you."
kai apokritheis ho aggelos eipen autêi: pneuma hagion epeleusetai epi se "and answering, the angel said to her: (a?) holy spirit will come upon you"
> Mt 12:32 Et quicumque dixerit verbum contra Filium hominis, remittetur ei: > qui autem dixerit contra Spiritum sanctum, non remittetur ei... "And whoever > speaks a word against the Son of man, he will be forgiven; but whoever > speaks against [a/the] holy Spirit, he shall not be forgiven."
kai hos ean eipêi logon kata tou hyiou tou anthrôpou, afethêsetai autôi; hos d' an eipêi kata tou pneumatos tou hagiou, ouk afethêsetai autôi... "and whosoever speaks a word against the son of the man, it will be forgiven him; whosoever, however, speaks against the holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him" (NB definite article here)
> Jn 20:22 Haec cum dixisset, insufflavit; et dixit eis: Accipite Spiritum > sanctum... "And having said this, he breathed (on them) and said to them: > Receive [a/the] holy Spirit."
kai touto eipôn enefysêsen kai legei autois: labete pneuma hagion "and having said this, he breathed into (them) and says to them: receive holy spirit"
> "Spirit" is capitalized in all four examples (but that may be a modern > orthographical bias). It seems to me that Mt 12:32 speaks not of any old > holy spirit, but of a substantially more important one.
It's also the only passage of the four that has a definite article in my edition of the Greek NT.
> Also, Acts, 2:4; Romans 14:17 and 15: 16. etc.
No definite article before "holy spirit" in any of those three passages. I never studied NT Greek, though, so can't speak to the significance or not of the absence or presence of the definite article. Cheers, -- Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> Watch the Reply-To!

Replies

H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Sally Caves <scaves@...>
Tim Smith <tim.langsmith@...>Greek definite article (was Re: Addendum: a holy spirit)