Placyd Kon in N. T. Wright

8 years ago

Terry Wildman thank you for this insight!

@Fred Sprinkle Thank you for inserting the author’s clarification. I read it together with the preceding paragraph I insert below: “Second, I have frequently used ‘god’ instead of ‘God’. This is not a printer’s error, nor is it a deliberate irreverence; rather the opposite, in fact. The modern usage, without the article and with a capital, seems to me actually dangerous. This usage, which sometimes amounts to regarding ‘God’ as the proper name of the Deity, rather than as essentially a common noun, implies that all users of the word are monotheists and, within that, that all monotheists believe in the same god. Both these propositions seem to me self-evidently untrue. It may or may not be true that any worship of any god is translated by some mysterious grace into worship of one god who actually exists, and who happens to be the only god. That is believed by some students of religion. It is not, however, believed by very many practitioners of the mainline monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) or of the non-monotheistic ones (Hinduism, Buddhism and their cognates). Certainly the Jews and Christians of the first century did not believe it. They believed that pagans worshipped idols, or even demons. (The question as to how Jews and Christians regarded each other’s beliefs on this topic will be addressed in Part V of the present volume.) ”  n.t.wright: “The early Christians used the phrase ‘the god’ (ho theos) of this god, and this was (I believe) somewhat polemical, making an essentially Jewish-monotheistic point over against polytheism. In a world where there were many suns, one would not say ‘the sun’.” I checked in the Greek grammars. I translate from German: „The article before θεός doesn't mean in NT “the God” (a certain, well known one among many others), but simply ‘God’ (the only One). Why is the article in NT there while we omit it? The people in the ancient world believed in many gods. Through the article used, the only God stood from them out. In the West influenced by the Christendom, thinking of God, we think of the only and true God. That is why we leave the article out.” (W. Stoy, K. Haag and W. Haubeck, “Bibel Griechisch leicht gemacht“, p. 33). This is an excerpt from an English book: „John 3:10 ὁ διδάσκαλος τοῦ ᾽Ισραήλ - the teacher of Israel  There were many teachers of Israel, but Nicodemus was either well known or, if the article is par excellence, the number one professor on the Gallup poll! Often ‘the gospel’ (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) and ‘the Lord’ (ὁ κύριος) employ articles par excellence. In other words, there was only one gospel and one Lord worth mentioning as far as the early Christians were concerned.” And in the footnote he writes: “ὁ θεός also may be regarded as par excellence rather than monadic in many contexts. This is not to say that to the NT writers there were many gods, but that there were many entities and beings called θεός. Only one truly deserved the name.” (Daniel B. Wallace, “Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics”, p. 223) @Terry Wildman We have to remember that the first manuscripts until 9th century were uncial. “About the beginning of the 9th cent. a new style of script was introduced (known as ‘minuscule’)” (Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). In “The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church” (3rd ed. rev., p. 1037). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.). “Uncial” this means that all the letters were capital. Only from the beginning of the 9th century the manuscripts were minuscule – in small letters.

@Placyd Thanks for the correction, however the effect is the same. It is interesting that the definite article might be the designator, but I am not sure that is always the case.