New Testament / Koine Greek, lecture #11: Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook, Mounce, chapter 12

2 months ago
178

A study of Dr. Bill Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook, Chapter 12, Track 1, autos (the Greek 3rd person personal pronoun, which is also used as an adjectival intensive and an identical adjective). The exercises reinforce what Dr. William Mounce teaches in chapter 12 of his textbook, Basics of Biblical Greek.

The English 3rd person pronouns are he, she, it (subjective singular), his, her, its (possessive singular), and him, her, it (objective singular). The subjective plural English pronoun is they; the possessive plural is their; and the objective plural is them. In Greek, autos is parsed as:

Nominative singular: autos, aute, auto (masculine, feminine, neuter)
Genitive singular: autou, autes, autou
Dative singular: auto, aute, auto
Accusative singular: auton, auten, auto

Nominative plural: autoi, autai, auta
Genitive plural: auton, auton, auton
Dative plural: autois, autais, autois
Accusative plural: autous, autas, auta

Autos uses case endings just like 2-1-2 adjectives. When autos functions as the 3rd person personal pronoun, its case is determined by its function in the sentence, while its gender and number are determined by its antecedent. Autos follows natural gender for a personal antecedent and grammatical gender for an impersonal antecedent.

When autos functions as an adjectival intensive, it normally modifies another word and it is usually in the predicate position. It is translated with a reflexive pronoun ("himself, herself, itself, themselves.") In this usage autos agrees with the noun it modifies in case, number, and gender. Autos as an adjectival intensive usually is in the nominative case and usually modifies the subject. It can supply exegetical emphasis, as its presence is technically unnecessary.

When autos functions as an identical adjective it is translated as "same." The least frequent usage of autos, when the Greek word is used in this fashion it is normally in the attributive position. Its case, number, and gender are determined by the word it modifies, as is the case with any adjective.

All parsing, warm-up, translation, and additional exercises are completed from chapter 12 of Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek workbook (3rd edition). English to Greek exercises on the third person pronoun are also completed at the end of the chapter, contrary to the usual pattern of William Mounce, who generally supplies only Greek to English exercises.

The translation exercises come from 1 Corinthians 15:39; Mark 9:19-20; John 8:12; Luke 8:56; Acts 8:15; John 4:2; John 14:11; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Matthew 28:19-20 (the Great Commission); Matthew 17:8; Philippians 3:11; Genesis 3:6 (LXX); Shepherd of Hermas 36:6; Genesis 9:1 (LXX); John 13:32; John 2:24; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; Luke 6:23; Acts 2:36; and some sentences that Dr. Mounce made up.

The FaithSaves website's section on college courses contains course syllabi, handouts, and other important material for taking this course.

Loading comments...