[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Sequences of Genitives ?= Construct form



I just read 1 John 1.7 where the author strings together a sequence of 
genitives
	to  ai(ma  I)hsou  tou ui(ou au)tou
	the blood of Jesus the son   of him

Matthew 1.1 has a longer example
	Biblos genesews      I)hsou Xristou ui(ou   Dauid ui(ou  A)braam
	book   of generation of Jesus Christ son of David son of Abraham

These remind me of `construct chains' in Hebrew (cf Esther 1.5 `in the 
court of the garden of the house of the king')

I have two questions:

1)	Are long sequences of genitives common in some book of the NT and not
	others? ie Do some authors favour them?
2)	Is this a Hebraism? (The Matthew example sounds like a direct 
	translation from Hebrew)

Thanks

James Tauber <jtauber@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Third Year Undergraduate Student
Centre for Linguistics / Department of Mathematics
University of Western Australia, Perth, AUSTRALIA