Biblical Greek - Lesson 12

Dr. Bill Mounce
Biblical Greek
nt201-12
αὐτός
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:00] Well, welcome to chapter 12. In chapter 12, we're going to learn the word. I'll toss. Now, you've already met this word and you've used it in certain situations. And so this is a chapter where we're going to kind of spell out the full use of the word. I'll toss. You've learned it as one function, namely the personal pronoun. What we're going to find is that Altus actually has three distinct functions. But first of all, as far as the form is concerned, it's a straightforward 212 adjective. So there's no surprises in the actual form except that you'll notice something in the neuter. What's missing? The new. There is a sub pattern in second declension neuters that drop the new in the nominative in the accusative singular. And I'll toss as one of those. Now that's cool because when you see Altan, you know that it has to be accusative, singular, masculine. But in the new straits. I'll talk with Anamika on. And you notice, though, that unlike Eagle and Sue, first and second person, that in the third person we do have gender. So you have Altus, Alta Alta. And when this word is referring back to a person, the word follows natural gender, doesn't it? If it's I'll toss it to he or a generic. If it's, I'll take it. She. But you may have noticed that if the antecedent to this word is not a person. Then the word does not follow natural gender. It follows grammatical gender. In other words, let's say the RNA seemed to the word is Kosmos. And then later on in the sentence, you want to refer back to Cosmos. Which form of the word are you going to use? You can use the masculine, but you're not going to translate.

[00:02:08] I'll toss as he. Because the A.S. is Cosmos world, which in English we refer to as an IT. When the antecedent of Altus is a person, it follows natural gender. When the antecedent is not a person, it follows grammatical gender. And the you have to be pretty careful at how you translate that word. Once we get into the plural of Altus, you notice a difference between Greek and English. In Greek, we still have gender. In English, we don't. In other words, we say they whether it's a group of men or a group of women or mixed. But Greek will maintain its gender differentiation in the plural, and the same rules apply to the plural that we use in the singular. So you have to look at it says that referring to a person or not, is it following natural gender or a grammatical gender? Although we have learned us as a third person personal pronoun, it technically should be stated that Altus has three functions. The first and most common function of Altus is, as you might expect, as the third person personal pronoun. This is the use that you've used so far. And so if you say Altus Legacy Alto, we're going to translate it, he says to him. How is the case of Altus determined when is functioning as a personal pronoun? It's function in the sentence. So I'll toss nominative because it's acting as a subject. Its gender number are determined by what it stands for, right? Either natural gender or grammatical gender. So if we see our toy Legos in Alt-A, we would translate it, they say to her. And again, if you have Cosmos and then later on want to refer back to it. It'll be I'll toss, it'll be masculine, but we will translate the masking and I'll toss as it because it's referring back to Cosmos.

[00:04:20] All you have to do is think, okay, what is the Greek mean? And then how do I say that in English? It's pretty straightforward. I'll toss also though, can function as what we call an adjectival intensive, and these are generally translated with the English reflexive. I'll toss a pass. The loss would be translated the apostle himself. I'll tell you. Hey, Ecclesia would be the church itself. So the second use of Altus is as an adjectival intensive. And basically this is what happens when you find Altus in a predicate position with the nominative. And it's just a way the Greek has to emphasize normally the subject, but a way to emphasize a particular word. Now, what's going to determine the case number and gender of all tasks when it's functioning is an adjectival intensive. Yeah. Again, nothing new to learn. This is just straightforward grammar. It's just an adjective in this case, and it's case number and gender is determined by the word that it modifies. How would you translate Eagle out to us? Right. I myself. In other words, all you do is you look at the word that a modifies and then figure which of the English reflexive pronouns would make sense. So it's the apostle himself, the church itself, the gift itself. I myself. Just common sense English. Okay. I'll toss. Has to be in the predicate position to be functioning as an assured title intensive. So as long as it's in a predicate position of a possible us, I'll toss. And again, what you have to do is look at the sentence and say, would that be translated? The apostle is in other words, is it in the French position and you supply is or is it functioning as an adjectival intensive? It's actually pretty straightforward because it's almost always nominative, almost always up near the front of the sentence.

[00:06:26] And you'll see these things and they'll stand out like what? Oh, of course. The third use of Altus is as what we call the identical adjective. And this is when you translate, I'll toss with the word same. It's very straightforward. When you see I'll toss in an attribute of position. It is usually functioning as the identical adjective. And so I'll toss a Suze C tosses in the attributed position. It's immediately preceded by the article. And so that's translated the same. Jesus doesn't make a lot of sense, but you'll get the idea. The same Jesus says turn Altun lag on again. You have Altan in an attribute of position, and therefore it's says the same word. So those are the three functions of our task as a personal pronoun, and that's what you're used to. And the vast majority of the New Testament uses of Altus is as a personal pronoun. But when you see it in a predicate position, it can be functioning as the intensifier. And if you see it in the attribute of position, it can be functioning as the identical. And just kind of use common sense in your translation.