they are referring. The basic rule for the Greek pronoun is that it agrees with its
antecedent in gender and number, but its case is determined by the pronoun’s func-
tion in its own clause. This concord principle, however, has many exceptions.
2. Elaboration
There are over 16,000 pronouns in the NT. On the one hand, this extended
use of pronouns also makes them susceptible to misinterpretation. On the other
hand, pronouns are often used to clarify. Sometimes this penchant for clarity
results in a redundant (or pleonastic) pronoun.
Pronouns are also used, at times, exclusively with connotative value. What they
denote may be obvious from the text; but they can be used for emphasis, contrast,
etc. This is especially the case with personal pronouns. But all is not cut-and-dried.
Thus, even when aujtovß is used with a third person verb, it may be for emphasis or
for clarity.
Furthermore, there is overlap in the use of the pronouns; the classical dis-
tinctions are not always maintained. The NT authors, for example, do not always
maintain the near-far distinction with the demonstrative pronouns ou|toß and
ejkeiçnoß.
3
Finally, we should mention a word about terminology. When the noun (or
other nominal) that the pronoun refers to precedes the pronoun, it is called the
pronoun’s antecedent (as in “Bob read the book. Then he gave it to Jane”). This is
the most frequent usage. When the noun comes after the pronoun, it is the pro-
noun’s postcedent (as in “After he read the book, Bob gave it to Jane”). In the lat-
ter case, the pronoun may be said to be “proleptic.”
Semantic Categories: Major Classes
ExSyn 319–51
The number of pronoun classes in Greek is difficult to assess, though most
grammars have between eight and twelve. A major part of the difficulty in deter-
mining the number of classes has to do with whether a particular term is an adjec-
tive or a pronoun.
4
Nevertheless, certain classes are not disputed as pronominal:
personal, demonstrative, relative, interrogative, indefinite, intensive, reflexive,
and reciprocal. These constitute the core of our discussion. In addition, the pos-
sessive pronoun will receive treatment below, but it is not a true Greek category.
The Pronouns 141
3
Dana-Mantey suggest, for example, that ejkeiçnoß is used “for that which is relatively dis-
tant in actuality or thought” (128), while ou|toß is used “for that which is relatively near in actu-
ality or thought” (127). This is a good description of their usage in Attic Greek, but there are
many exceptions in the NT.
4
To some extent, the determination of what constitutes a pronoun is an arbitrary choice.
Some words are clearly pronouns (e.g., ejgwv), others are clearly adjectives (e.g., ajgaqovß), while
several words may be classed somewhere in between, either as pronominal adjectives or adjec-
tival pronouns. For the most part, we are regarding those words as pronouns that, when func-
tioning substantivally, do not take the article. Adjectives, on the other hand, regularly take the
article when substituting for a noun.