Subjective and Objective Genitives

Kevin Smith kgs at iafrica.com
Sat Oct 30 13:50:39 EDT 1999


Dear friends
 
RE: EPIFANEIAN THS DOCHS (Titus 2:13)
 
I'm having some trouble distinguishing between subjective and objective genitives. I learned most of my grammar from Wallace (GGBB, 1996). He recommends that when one suspects one of these categories, the key to identification is to turn the head noun into a verb and turn the genitive into its subject or object. Furthermore, when describing the objective genitive Wallace explains that "an objective genitive can only occur with verbal nouns which imply a transitive verb" (p. 117). 
 
Yet Gordon Fee, in his commentary on the Pastorals, regards the above example as an objective genitive, explaining that it gives "the 'what' of the manifestation." 
 
However, EPIFANEIAN THS DOXHS seems to convert naturally into "the glory appears," hence a subjective genitive. The verbal idea in EPIFANEIAN seems to be intransitive, which would mean the construction could not be an objective genitive.
 
Since I have great respect for Fee, I suspect I'm missing something here. Could someone please tell me what it is, that is, why EPIFANEIAN THS DOXHS is objective and not subjective?
 
Thanks
Kevin Smith
Port Elizabeth
kgs at iafrica.com
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