The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

in gender; second, that in the seeming exceptions to this rule, in which the
demonstrative pronoun is of a different gender from the thing alluded to,
that exception arises from the fact that the thing is thought of as a thing,
and not in the grammatical force of its name; third, that in such cases,
consequently, we may not supply the grammatical name of the thing, but
must conceive of it indefinitely as a thing, so that in no case whatever is it
lawful to read in after a demonstrative, a noun of a different gender from its
own. The general rule, therefore, stands in this case, and decides it. The
rule specifically applied here is, that a demonstrative pronoun qualifying a
noun agrees with that noun in gender. Now "touto" does not agree in
gender with "artos," and "artos" may, therefore, not be supplied.
Against the critic who maintains that we may reach grammatically
the construction: "This bread is," some of the points which we consider
decisive in the case are here: 1. The word artos (bread) had not been used
by our Lord at all. He had simply said: "Take, eat, this is My body." The
word artos the critic gets from Matthew's narrative. No such word as he
reads in was used antecedently to our Saviour's declaration. He says that,
as our Saviour uttered the words: "This is My body," the "this" refers to
the word artos. Our reply in brief is, there was no word artos to refer to.
That word is Matthew's word, written long after our Lord's ascension. The
artos expressed cannot be the antecedent to our Saviour's touto, for the
simple reason that there was no artos expressed.
2. Our second point is this, that as there is no precedent artos
standing in any possible grammatical relation to the touto, if we get the
artos in at all, we must get it in by supplying it by conjecture from the
mind of the speaker, and adding it after the touto, thus: touto artos, a neuter
pronoun qualifying a masculine noun.
3. Our third point is, that the pronoun never varies from the gender of
the noun it qualifies, or agrees with. Our inference, therefore, is, that as on
the critic's theory, touto, a neuter pronoun, must qualify artos, a masculine
noun, that theory is