Concerning Genesis 1:16
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Aug 23 14:24:26 EDT 1999
At 1:44 PM -0400 8/23/99, Dan Ebert wrote:
>Thanks Carl,
>
>Sorry about the name thing, I believe I have corrected it.
You have indeed; thank you.
>Further question concerning Genesis 1:16, I am finding that when "arche"
>is followed by a genitive phrase, the "arche" is part of that which is
>signified in the genitive. Could that in any way be considered true in
>this occurence?
I think I see what you mean. In our text:
KAI EPOIHSEN hO QEOS TOUS DUO FWSTHRAAS TOUS MEGALOUS TON FWSTHRA TON MEGAN
EIS ARCAS THS hHMERAS KAI TON FWSTHRA TON ELASSW EIS ARCAS THS NUKTOS KAI
TOUS ASTERAS
the phrase EIS ARCAS is followed,in the first instance by the genitive THS
hHMERAS and in the second instance by THS NUKTOS. Unquestionably these
genitives are dependent on the first and second instance of ARCAS
respectively. And now let me note that your question originally raised for
me the further question why the LXX reads EIS ARCAS with an accusative
plural for the Hebrew L'MeMSHeLeth, where the construct-noun seems rather
to be singular. Could the LXX translator have interpreted the Hebrew text
and conveyed it as EIS ARCAS as "for beginnings of day" and "for beginnings
of night"?
I'm not sure what the right answer to this question is and I'd like to see
other opinions: why is ARCAS plural and does the plural imply a plurality
of "principalities" or "governances"?
At any rate, these genitives do indeed depend upon ARCAS. If, on the one
hand, ARCAS is taken to mean "beginnings," then THS hHMERAS and THS NUKTOS
will be ordinary adnominal genitives, but if taken to mean "governances,"
then they will have to be "objective" genitives dependent upon the verbal
notion (ARCEIN) in the noun ARCAS.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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