oJ oJ, hJ, tov, originally to", th'/, tov (as is evident from the forms toi, tai for oiJ, aiJ in Homer and the Ionic writings), corresponds to our definite article the (German der, die, das), which is properly a demonstrative pronoun, which we see in its full force in Homer, and of which we find certain indubitable traces also in all kinds of Greek prose, and hence also in the N. T.I. As a demonstrative pronoun; Latin hic, hacc, hoc; German der, die, das, emphatic; cf. Winer's Grammar, sec. 17, 1; Buttmann, 101f (89f);1. in the words of the poet Aratus, tou' gavr kaiv gevno" ejsmen, quoted by Paul in .2. in prose, where it makes a partition or distributes into parts: oJ mevn ... oJ dev, that ... this, the one ... the other: R G Tr (here the division is threefold); (here L WH Tr marginal reading brackets mevn); oiJ mevn ... oiJ dev, ; f; oiJ mevn ... oJ dev, f,20 (21), 23f; touv" mevn ... touv" dev, R G; ; oiJ mevn ... a[lloi dev (Lclnn. oiJ dev) ... e{teroi dev, cf. ; tine" followed by oiJ dev, ; o{" (see o{" I.) mevn followed by oJ dev, ; oiJ dev stands as though oiJ mevn had preceded, ; .3. in narration, when either two persons or two parties are alternately placed in opposition to each other and the discourse turns from one to the other; oJ dev, but he, and he (German er aber): ; ; f; ; ; ,,; ,; , and very often; plural, ,; ; (R G L marginal reading), 16 (L brackets oiJ dev); ; ,; ,,; ; , and often; oiJ mevn ou\n, in the Acts alone: ; ; ,; oJ mevn ou\n, ; .II. As the definite or prepositive article (to be distinguished from the postpositive article -- as it is called when it has the force of a relative pronoun, like the German der, die, das, examples of which use are not found in the N. T.), whose use in the N. T. is explained at length by Winer's Grammar, sections 18-20; Buttmann, 85 (74ff); (Green, p. 5ff). As in all languages the article serves to distinguish things, persons, notions, more exactly, it is prefixed1. to substantives that have no modifier; and a. those that designate a person or a thing that is the only one of its kind; the article thus distinguishes the same from all other persons or things, as oJ h{lio", oJ oujranov", hJ gh', hJ qavlassa, oJ Qeov", oJ lovgo" (f), oJ diavbolo", tov fw'", hJ skotiva, hJ zwhv, oJ qavnato", etc. b. appellative