Re: Ephesians 4:5 -- "One" in all 3 genders

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 20 1998 - 20:38:57 EST


At 6:19 PM -0600 1/20/98, Edward L. Pothier wrote:
> What is interesting is that in Greek the three nouns are all of
>different grammatical genders: Lord=masculine, faith=feminine, and
>baptism=neuter. The Greek adjective for "one" is a highly irregular
>example doing more than just changing endings; so in this single verse
>all three genders of the adjective "one" (in the nominative case)
>occur:
>"<Eph 4:5>_hEIS KURIOS, MIA PISTIS, hEN BAPTISMA_".

Actually this is not nearly so irregular as it may appear: phonetic change
accounts for those apparently very different looking forms of the
nominative in each gender of the root SEM/SOM/SM; if these were spelled out
as they were before the phonetic changes took place, their common root
would be readily discernible:

hEIS <-- SEMS, MIA <-- SMIA, hEN <-- SEM

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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