Isa 40:3 Genitive

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Nov 15 08:28:43 EST 2000


At 2:13 PM +0100 11/15/00, Wieland Willker wrote:
>Isa 40:3
>EN TH ERHMW ETOIMASATE THN ODON KURIOU EUQEIAS POIEITE TAS TRIBOUS TOU
>QEOU HMWN
>
>How would you translate this and why this way?
>E.g. is it "the way to the lord" or "the way of the lord" or "a way for
>the lord" ( all
>these are found in translations)
>I have found this as an example for a Genitive of direction: "the way to
>the lord". What
>indicators are there for this?

"Make ready in the wilderness a highway for the Lord; lay straight the
pathways of our God."

"Genitive of direction" doesn't mean anything to me; so far as I can see
this is simply the old-fashioned structural genitive linking one noun to
its head. However, in its context I've always understood this to imply that
YHWH will travel through the wilderness/desert with his people returning to
Judea from exile in Babylon, and that this is understood as a new Exodus
event comparable to the original trek beginning with liberation from
Egyptian bondage and ending with entry into the Promised Land. So I don't
think it is a road leading TO the Lord God, but rather a highway upon which
the Lord God is to travel as he leads His people homewards. I don't think
there are any indicators whatsoever for the sense "a road TO the Lord."

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
cwconrad at ioa.com
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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