Differences and similarities between Gothic and Greek in the area of the definite article – the case of the Gospel of John

Abstract

The paper deals with the problem of defi nite article in the Gothic Bible. More spe-cifi cally, it concentrates on the differences and similarities of use between the target language, i.e. Gothic, and the source language, i.e. Greek, with special attention being paid to the case of the article – nominative, genitive, dative or accusative. It is part of a larger endeavor aiming at the analysis of the whole Gothic Bible in this respect. This time the Gospel of John is taken into consideration, following an earlier study which concentrated on the Gospel of Matthew. In the paper it will not only be observed how frequently Gothic omits the defi nite article in places where Greek uses it in the Gospel of John, but also in what way the cases of the defi nite article vary in both languages due to their grammatical specifi cities.