1 Cor 12:27 - need help

I was wondering how you translate a noun without an article.

In 1 Cor 12:27

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular

In the Greek, the phrase "body of Christ" does not have a definite article . I am being told that "the" should have been italicized or translated "a body of Christ". Is there any rule in Greek on this? I know there is only a definite article in the Greek unlike English where there is an indefinite article.

Any help would be appreciated

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Kevin Becker

Hey Steve, no need to post multiple times, one will get caught [:)]

As you observed, there is no indefinite article in Greek. However, the article is not the only thing that can connote definiteness. If you have Wallace check out this list: logosres:gs-ggbtb;ref=Page.p_734;off=353 It's a list of circumstances when a lack of article can still be considered definite.

I would contend that "body of Christ" would fall under H (even F & J would fit too)

[quote] h. A Genitive Construction (Apollonius’ Corollary): anarthrous head noun with anarthrous genitive noun: both usually have the same semantic force (usually definite or qualitative) (250–52)

So in conclusion it is letting too much English grammar intrude into Greek if we assume that the lack of the article means we have to imply the English indefinite article.

Steve Shelton

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/257212#Comment_257212

Kevin

Thanks for the reply. The first time I attempted to post afterwards I didn't see my post. I didn't mean to post twice.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

I was wondering how you translate a noun without an article.

In 1 Cor 12:27

Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular

In the Greek, the phrase "body of Christ" does not have a definite article . I am being told that "the" should have been italicized or translated "a body of Christ". Is there any rule in Greek on this? I know there is only a definite article in the Greek unlike English where there is an indefinite article.

Any help would be appreciated

Observation: Greek is not English. Searched my Grammars collection for "Greek definite article" that included many articles in Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (included in Scholar's Platinum and Portfolio) including "Absence of the Article" => logosres:ggntlhr;ref=Page.p_790;off=556

Also noted a verb form of "to be" so lack of Greek definite article on both sides implies equality (you = body of Christ), consistent with United Bible Societies (UBS) handbook translation insights: logosres:ubshbk67;ref=Bible.1Co12.27 (included in Scholar's Gold and above)

1 Corinthians 12:27.

From this point on Paul explains the image of the body as referring to the church, the body of Christ. This verse takes up the thought of verse 12. For this reason and in order to make the contrast between verses 27a and 27b clearer, several translations agree with TEV in expanding youto “all of you.” For example, JB has “Now you together are Christ’s body …”; NJB“Now Christ’s body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole.”

Are the body of Christ may be expressed as “make up Christ’s body.” The body of Christ means not “the body which is Christ” but “the body which belongs to Christ.”

An alternative translation model for this verse is: All of you are the body which belongs to Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

John 1:1 has a phrase using verb "to be" with Greek definite article on one side, UBS handbook offers translation insights: logosres:ubshbk64;ref=Bible.Jn1.1;off=1

He was the same as God appears in most translations as “the Word was God” [Revised Standard Version (RSV), JB, NAB]. NEB renders by “what God was, the Word was” and Mft “the Logos was divine” [Goodspeed (Gdsp) “the Word was divine”]. Zürcher Bibel (Zür) has “the Word was God,” with a footnote indicating that this means the Word possessed a divine nature.

These many differences in translation are due to the Greek sentence structure. In this type of equational sentence in Greek (A = the subject can be distinguished from the predicate by the fact that the subject has the article before it and the predicate does not. Since “God” does not have the article preceding it, “God” is clearly the predicate and “the Word” is the subject. This means that “God” is here the equivalent of an adjective, and this fact justifies the rendering he (the Word) was the same as God. John is not saying that “the Word” was God the Father, but he is affirming that the same divine predication can be made of “the Word” as can be made of God the Father, and so “the Word” can be spoken of as God in the same sense.

Many languages have two quite different types of equational sentences. One type indicates complete identity in such a sentence as “My husband is John Smith” or “John Smith is my husband,” that is, the two parts of the sentence are completely equivalent. In the second type, however, one may say “John Smith is a teacher” but cannot say “A teacher is John Smith.” “A teacher” merely qualifies “John Smith” and indicates the class of persons to which he belongs. The latter is precisely the type of equational sentence which occurs in this verse. “God” completely characterizes “the Word,” and all that is true of God is true of the Word. This does not mean, however, that the two elements can be inverted, and that one can translate “God was the Word” any more than one can make “Love is God” an inversion of the biblical statement “God is love.” It is difficult for some people to recognize that this equational sentence in Greek belongs to the second class because in the predicate the term “God” refers to a unique object. Since this type of equational sentence may be misleading with “God” in the predicate, it is better to translate it “The Word was the same as God” or “Just what God was that is what the Word also was.”

Keep Smiling [:)]

DAL

I'm not a Greek scholar, but I would never translate "a body of Christ" since Christ only has ONE body (Ephesians 4:4) and we are members of one another of that ONE body (Ephesians 4:25). [:)]

Blessings!

Jack Caviness

I love L4! Searched my collection of Greek Grammars for anarthrous AND quality as I remembered from Greek class that the anarthrous construction emphasizes quality while articular construction stresses identity.

7. Abstract Nouns

They may be articular or anarthrous in all periods down to MGr. They tend to be anarthrous if there is greater emphasis on the abstract quality

Moulton, James Hope and Nigel Turner. A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Volume 3: Syntax. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1963-.

***

To Focus on the Quality of the Noun

When the author wants to focus on the quality, character, nature, or class of the noun, he will omit the article

Young, Richard A. Intermediate New Testament Greek : A Linguistic and Exegetical Approach. Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman & Holman, 1994.

***

Moulton points out the importance of this: “For exegesis, there are few of the finer points of Greek which need more constant attention than this omission of the article when the writer would lay stress on the quality or character of the object.”⁵¹ The term “omission of the article” suggests that the article should be present, which is not necessarily true; therefore, this manual uses the term “nonuse” instead. However, there are three possible functions of a substantive without the article: definite, indefinite, and qualitative.

Perschbacher, Wesley J. New Testament Greek Syntax: An Illustrated Manual. Chicago IL: Moody Press, 1995.

***

When a substantive is anarthrous, it may have one of three forces: indefinite, qualitative, or definite. There are not clear-cut distinctions between these three forces, however. If we were to place them on a continuum graph, we would see that the qualitative aspect is sometimes close to being definite, sometimes close to being indefinite:

Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics - Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, Zondervan Publishing House and Galaxie Software, 1999; 2002.

EDIT: Had to go back and edit this thing 3 times as the chart would show in the edit window but would disappear when the comment was posted. Needed to save to desktop and attach to the post. I say all this for those who might have problems in the future.

Steve Shelton

I would like to thank everyone who commented on the question I submitted here. You pointed me in the right direction for the answer. Thanks again for all your help.