Eru, the Word and Greek syntax (was Re: Finnish, IE, Germanic)

Isaak ho Ioudaios pasi tois koino:nois - chairein:

On Sat, 23 Nov 2002 14:44:02 -0500 Robert B Wilson egrapsen:

<<<yes it is Quenya and it means "In the beginning Eru created the
Heaven
and the Earth" and "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with
Eru and Eru was the Word.">>>

I thought somebody of our specialists in Classic Langs would pay
attention.
OK, since nobody reacts, I'll say a few words.
What is a subject and what is a predicate in your sentence "and Eru
was the Word"?
If "Eru" is a subject and "was the Word" a predicate, then it's
unfortunately wrong.
The original text says "kai theos e:n ho logos". Since the word
"theos" is used *without* definite article, and "ho logos" *with*
d.a., then "th" is predicative and "l" is subject.
Which gives us the only possible interpretation of the phrase:
"and the Word was [the same as] Eru".
Otherwise it may bring us to idea that the Word (G-d forbid!) was the
only manifestation of Eru
(which, although, is a common theological misinterpretation based on
wrong exegesis).

ObConlang:
-- Do your conlangs permit to express "predication vector" in nominal
sentences like the Greek example above (A was B, but B was not only
A)?

> Robert Wilson (aka Elentirno Perellar aka Kuvazokad)
Yitzik
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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