Concerning Genesis 1:16
Dan Ebert
dellbert at buckeyeinternet.com
Mon Aug 23 18:11:09 EDT 1999
Hi Carl:
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.
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It may be significant to note that among the times "arche" is used to designate "ruler" in the NT (which numbers 11 times, I think), 10 of those occurences the word appears in the plural or is signified to be understood as a plural by the word "every" or "all" along with it. The 11th time (Luke 20:20) it is used with a 'genitive' phrase and appears to be PART of that which is signified by the genitive.
I have no way of finding out how many times "arche" is used in the LXX to designate "ruler" and whether or not it appears in the plural then as well, but it would be interesting to know.
Thanks,
Dan E.
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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