A Few Idiomatic Cases

In such cases as τὸ ὄρος, I judge it is idiomatic; from the locality being objectively contrasted with τὸ πεδίον. It is the same in French: " Il est a la montagne" is no particular mountain, but they go in summer there from the plain. We say it as to the plain. It is the whole tract in contrast with the plain. Τὸ πλοῖον-I believe also that is aboard. Middleton's reference to a ship which was to attend him would be good grammatically. Τὸν ἄρτον is occasionally used technically for the bread at the Lord's Supper, when the subject is spoken of, though in Matt. 26:26, TO,: limy means the loaf on the table for the supper. These are questions of usage, not of grammar. Who would ask what particular loaf was meant, or what emphasis, if in a history of a family I should say, "The child said at the end of supper,' Give me the loaf or the bread.'" The only emphasis is that it is the one they had to eat. That made, it a particular object. So we should all feel the difference, if I said, " he spoke at breaking of bread," or " at the breaking of the bread." One refers to a common usage. The other gives a particular objective act. The Lord took bread, ἄτρον; or τὸν ἄρτον; the bread that was there. "Κλάσας is the fact given: τῆ κλάσει τοῦ ἄρτον is the specific act of the Lord's Supper (Acts 2:42,46). Ἐν τῆ ἐπιστολῆ (1 Cor. 5) is clearly some letter known to them, to which he refers. The rest is matter of interpretation, whether the letter he was writing which would perfectly answer, or another letter, of which the Spirit of God has only preserved this. I apprehend τω ἐκτρώματι (1 Cor. 15:8), means the ἐκτρώμαof the set-like one in comparison with them, and then the article is required. We say the foot (as being of a body), the eye. He was τὸ ἐκτρώμαof those mentioned. In John 8:7, τὸν λίθον is the stone supposed in the stoning spoken of. Ὁ διδάσκαλος (John 3:10), is equally simple. It is teacher in contrast with scholar. We should say, as thus laying emphasis, " Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet do not know that?" Such a contrast always leaves out any other individuals who teach, or absorbs them all into one. In the expression, " The foot cannot say", it would be feeble to say, " a foot," and yet equally good grammar: a mere proposition to state, and not an idea which ought to be evident to the hearer, and hence emphasis laid on what gives weight to that idea. It is viewed as a part of a particular body; and hence, as in every such instance, is a positive object distinguished from another.