Lk 2:2 hAUTH EGENETO APOGRAFH PRWTH (D05)

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Sep 26 05:54:36 EDT 2002


At 8:33 AM -0400 9/18/02, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

>EGENETO: Can this really be an appropriate aorist equivalent to the
>imperfect HN--and therefore can it take a predicate word? If so, then the
>sense of the reading of D05 must be: "This was a first (or 'earlier')
>registration/enrollment ..." I am somewhat dubious, however, about
>understanding GINOMAI as a simple copula; BDAG shows the verb in an
>existential sense (#8), but not, so far as I can see, as a copula linking a
>subject to a predicate word. My own survey of LSJ-Glare doesn't really
>quite convince me that usage as a copula equivalent to an aorist of EIMI is
>standard, but I am open to a demonstration that I am wrong on this.

While I stand by my statement above that I don't think EGENETO
functions as a copula here in hAUTH EGENETO APOGRAFH PRWTH, I really have
no objection to understanding it in the sense "proved to be" or "turned out
to be." Mme Chabert d'Hyères has called my attention to the similar usage
in Thucydides 1.55.2 AITIA DE hAUTH PRWTH EGENETO TOU POLEMOU, which I
would English as "And this turned out to be [or 'proved to be'] the primary
catalyst of the war." So then Lk 2:2 hAUTH EGENETO APOGRAFH PRWTH would be
understood as, "This proved to be a first  (of two or several) registration
... "
-- 

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/



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