[b-greek] Re: Luke 10:12

From: Richard Allan Stauch (RStauch@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sun Jul 08 2001 - 01:19:35 EDT


-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Sangrey [mailto:msangrey@BlueFeltHat.org]
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2001 6:48 PM
"Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu> said:
> Quite a few place names in the ancient world are plural: DELFOI,
> AQHNAI, QHBAI in mainland Greece, and Jerusalem more often than not in
> the GNT is hIEROSOLUMA, a neuter plural.
Hmmmmmm...any idea as to why?

Well, it could be because cities were sometimes named after a person (so
singular), or after things (so plural). Just looking at the seven churches
in Revelation 1:11, for instance:
EFESON = Fem Sing (possibly from EFESEUS "appetite", founded by Cresus
"Cretan")
SMURNAN = Fem Sing (from: SMURNA "myrrh", daughter of King Theias and mother
of Adonis, Smyrna was cursed by Aphrodite [the "Baths of Agamemnon" are near
the city])
PERGAMON = Fem/Neut Sing (possibly after PERGAMUS "citadel", one of two sons
of Neoptolemus [son of Achilles] by Andromache)
QUATEIRA = Neut Plur (I don't know when Thyatira was founded, but it was
only becoming prosperous in the 1st Century AD)
SARDEIS = Fem Plur (possibly a kind of stone [ruby?] known for that area
[One of two cities, of these seven, that are uninhabited in modern times])
FILADELFEIAN = Fem Sing (of course, "brotherly love")
LAODIKEIAN = Fem Sing (possibly after Laodice [aka Electra] "justice of the
people", daughter of Agamemnon by Clytaemnestra, and sister of Orestes, or
after one of Priam's 12 daughters [aka Hiera, or Asthoche] by Hecabe [aka
Hecuba] and wife of Telephus, or she was the wife of Helicaon and she was
swallowed by the earth at the sanctuary of Tros [The other city, of these
seven, uninhabited in modern times])

I don't suppose there is any way of knowing why a particular city name would
be plural in form rather than singular, but it could be that, as the city
was named, those who named it had something in particular in mind about the
city's nature.

Just a thought, or two.
Richard Allan Stauch
Long Beach, CA


---
B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [jwrobie@mindspring.com]
To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-327Q@franklin.oit.unc.edu
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu




This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:01 EDT