# A question about the word "the" and the Bible **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524 "2005-03-21T06:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/1 "2005-03-21T06:30:08Z")
In John 14:6, Jesus says in most English translations, “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Anyway, I’ve been here in China for a copule years and their language doesn’t have the word “the” in it. My question is simple. Does Greek have “the” and if not, is there an indication in the original Greek that Jesus means “the” for each of the three parts of his sentence? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/2 "2005-03-21T06:53:22Z")
**Diogenes the Cynic** should be along to provide more detailed information, but until he gets here: Greek does have definite articles, and they are used similarly to the way English uses them, with a few twists. (Think of how French articles don’t quite fit English usage for clarity on that.) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/3 "2005-03-21T07:15:01Z")
_“…Ego eimi **he** hodos kai **he** aletheia kai **he** zoe…”_ All of the bolded “_he’s_” (pronounced “hay”) are definite articles. It has to be said, however, that Koine Greek did not have an _indefinite_ article. There were no words for “a” or “an.” You couldn’t say “Jesus was a carpenter,” you could only say “Jesus was the carpenter.” So while Greek had an abundance of indefinite articles (and grammatically, you have to use the indefinite article every single tome you use the noun…this gives you constructions that would sound jarring in English. “The brown dog,” for instance would be, “the brown the dog”) it doesn’t necessarily have the same emphatic or exclusive connotation that it has in English. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/4 "2005-03-21T07:18:24Z")
> [@](#): > > …abundance of indefinite articles… That should have said “definite.” Greek has an abundance of _definite_ articles. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/5 "2005-03-21T07:20:53Z")
> [@](#): > > and grammatically, you have to use the indefinite article every single tome you use the noun… Gads, when will I learn to use the preview function? :smack: You have to use the **definite** article every **time** you use the noun. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/6 "2005-03-21T07:47:19Z")
So, how does a language get by without definite and/or indefinite articles? How would you render “This is a cup, one of the many cups I own.” in Koine Greek? How would you render “This is the paved road, the only one in town.” in Chinese (which dialect, **Mahaloth**?)? Obviously, word-for-word translations aren’t possible. How would you render the ideas expressed in those sentences? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/7 "2005-03-21T07:55:39Z")
> [@](#): > > How would you render “This is the paved road, the only one in town.” in Chinese (which dialect, Mahaloth?)? Chinese (Mandarin) has indefinite articles. You can say “This is a road”, for example. And to specify that there is only one road, you use the word for “only”. “This is (the only) road.” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/8 "2005-03-21T07:57:36Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So, how does a language get by without definite and/or indefinite articles? > > How would you render “This is a cup, one of the many cups I own.” in Koine Greek? I can’t speak You would have to say, “This is the cup, the one of many I own,” but you would more likely see something that would translate to somrething like “this is one of my many cups.” Someone else willhave to answer the Chinese question. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/9 "2005-03-21T07:59:08Z")
Oops, to be clear, you would actually say “This is only road”. There is no “the”, as you know. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/10 "2005-03-21T08:02:31Z")
**Diogenes** , **Reply** : Thank you for your amazingly prompt replies. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/11 "2005-03-21T08:29:06Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So, how does a language get by without definite and/or indefinite articles? > > How would you render “This is a cup, one of the many cups I own.” in Koine Greek? > > How would you render “This is the paved road, the only one in town.” in Chinese (which dialect, **Mahaloth**?)? > > Obviously, word-for-word translations aren’t possible. How would you render the ideas expressed in those sentences? Just thought I would answer these for Japanese as well. Japanese is quite lacking in things like “a” and “the” as well as not really having a way to indicate items in plural. Though my translations will be slightly off as I am not a native speaker. This is a cup, one of the many cups I own. -\> This is cup. One of many cup that is mine. \<- Kore ha kappu. Watashi no motteiru samazama na kappu no naka no hitotsu desu. Note that the subject is also dropped in the second sentence. This is fairly standard, and an “It is” is assumed to exist. This is the paved road, the only one in town. -\> This road is only paved road of this town. \<- Kono michi ha kono machi no yuuitsu peevu-ka\* sareta michi desu. Though the sentence order is a lot different. My understanding is that Chinese follows as a similar sentence structure as English. “This road is only paved road of this town” is actually closer to “This road, this town’s only pave-done road is.” with the verb as the very last item. Think Yoda. - Haven’t the foggiest what “paved” is in Japanese–though this might get you by ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/12 "2005-03-21T08:37:50Z")
Just to offer some perspective, Russian lacks both definite and indefinite articles. (Which is why the very bad russian accent in English is often rendered articleless) The language does quite well through context and different cases/declensions. When, in English, one would use “the” for emphasis, in Russian you would use “only” or “main”. When in English one would use “a” for emphasis, in Russian you would use “any”. If you’re not using the article for emphasis, most of the time, it’s unambigious, so there’s no problem. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/13 "2005-03-21T08:43:15Z")
I guess I should have mentioned that Greek uses “this” and “that” a lot where English might use indefinite articles. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/14 "2005-03-21T09:29:57Z")
Hebrew, in turn, doesn’t have indefinite articles - indefinite is the default. So, “This is a cup” would be “This is cup”, or, as Hebrew dos not use the verb “be”, “This cup” - _Ze cos_. OTO, if you actually wanted to say “This cup”, it would turn out “The cup the this” (_Ha-kos ha-zo_). ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/15 "2005-03-21T10:46:48Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > _“…Ego eimi **he** hodos kai **he** aletheia kai **he** zoe…”_ > > All of the bolded “_he’s_” (pronounced “hay”) are definite articles. Actually, the “he” is pronounced the same as the “i” in the word “pit” or “spit”. > [@](#): > > It has to be said, however, that Koine Greek did not have an _indefinite_ article. There were no words for “a” or “an.” You couldn’t say “Jesus was a carpenter,” you could only say “Jesus was the carpenter.” You \*can \*say “Jesus was a carpenter”: “O Christos itan ksilourgos” or “O Christos itan enas ksilourgos” which literally translates to, “Jesus was carpenter” and “Jesus was one carpenter” and both mean “Jesus was a carpenter”. > [@](#): > > So while Greek had an abundance of definite articles (and grammatically, you have to use the definite article every single tome you use the noun…this gives you constructions that would sound jarring in English. “The brown dog,” for instance would be, “the brown the dog”) it doesn’t necessarily have the same emphatic or exclusive connotation that it has in English. You don’t have to use the definite article every time. You can say “O kafe skylos” or “O kafe o skylos” which literally translate to “The brown dog”, “The brown the dog” but both just mean “The brown dog” Note: the above hold for modern Greek, so I’m not sure how it was for ancient Greek. ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/16 "2005-03-21T10:51:51Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So, how does a language get by without definite and/or indefinite articles? > > How would you render “This is a cup, one of the many cups I own.” in Koine Greek? > > How would you render “This is the paved road, the only one in town.” in Chinese (which dialect, **Mahaloth**?)? > > Obviously, word-for-word translations aren’t possible. How would you render the ideas expressed in those sentences? I guess the answer is that in Greek you use “ena” (one) to denote “a”, and use the definite article to denote “the”. “This is a cup, one of the many cups I own.” == “Afto einai ena potiri, ena apo ta polla potiria pou exo” “This is the paved road, the only one in town.” == “Aftos einai o stromenos dromos, o monadikos stin poli” ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/17 "2005-03-21T10:57:10Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > _“…Ego eimi **he** hodos kai **he** aletheia kai **he** zoe…”_ > > … it doesn’t necessarily have the same emphatic or exclusive connotation that it has in English. I think that if Jesus meant “I am _a_ way, _a_ truth and _a_ light”, (i.e. he was not the unique way, truth and light), he would have said “Ego eimi mia hodos kai mia aletheia kai mia zoe…” or something like that (where “mia” means “one”), and he wouldn’t have used the “_he_”. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/18 "2005-03-21T11:26:09Z")
But – slight hijack, sorry – even if Jesus explicity stated them in the definite form, you can still wonder: The way to what? The truth of what? The light that illuminates what? What if there was more than one destination, more than one way to reach the truth, and a darkness that isn’t really all that scary to begin with? ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/19 "2005-03-21T13:04:26Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So, how does a language get by without definite and/or indefinite articles? > > How would you render “This is a cup, one of the many cups I own.” in Koine Greek? > > How would you render “This is the paved road, the only one in town.” in Chinese (which dialect, **Mahaloth**?)? > > Obviously, word-for-word translations aren’t possible. How would you render the ideas expressed in those sentences? I’m pretty certain all the Chinese languages lack definite articles, so you’d just say something like “This is town’s only paved road.” Certainly it’s how it would work in Mandarin. (The indefinite article is really just “one” - “This is one paved road.”) ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2005, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524/20 "2005-03-21T13:19:31Z")
I would translate it as “this is (one) paved road, this town’s only one paved road”. “(one)” in Chinese is more like “this (one)”, rather than the numerical “one”. Sorta like how you can’t say “this two”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-the-word-the-and-the-bible/295524.md?page=2)