Genitive case of ANDROS in 1 Tim 2:12

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Aug 15 05:29:50 EDT 2002


At 5:12 PM +0930 8/15/02, Peter Ballard wrote:
>G'day all,
>
>Probably a really basic question. Sorry :-)
>
>DIDASKEIN DE GUNAIKI OUK EPITREPW OUDE AUTHENTEIN ANDROS
>
>Why is ANDROS genitive? Is it simply because AUTHENTEIN is one of
>those verbs for which the object goes in the genitive rather than
>accusative case?
>
>I am aware that there has been scholarly debate over whether ANDROS
>is also the subject of the verb DIDASKEIN. I'm hoping to leave that
>aside for now. i.e. if the verse simply said:
>GUNAIKI OUK EPITREPW AUTHENTEIN ANDROS
>would we still expect ANDROS to be in the genitive?

Yes; verbs of the exercise of authority in Greek pretty consistently take a
genitive of the person (or political realm) over whom that authority is
exercised, and BDAG notes other instances of this verb used with just such
a genitive:

AUQENTEW:  to assume a stance of independent authority, give orders to,
dictate to w. gen. of pers. (Ptolem., Apotel. 3, 14, 10 Boll-B.; Cat. Cod.
Astr. VIII/1 p. 177, 7; B-D-F §177) ANDROS, w. DIDASKEIN, 1 Ti 2:12
(practically = 'tell a man what to do' [Jerusalem Bible]; Mich. Glykas [XII
AD] 270, 10 hAI GUNAIKES AUQENTOUSI TWN ANDRWN. According to Diod. S. 1,
27, 2 there was a well-documented law in Egypt: KURIEUEIN THN GUNAIKA
T'ANDROS, cp. Soph., OC 337-41; GKnight III, NTS 30, '84, 143-57;
LWilshire, ibid. 34, '88, 120-34).
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list