Lk 2:42: age of Jesus in the Temple (Luke in Codex Bezae
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Sep 26 06:29:53 EDT 2002
Forwarded for George Somsel:
From: Polycarp66 at aol.com
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:12:54 EDT
In a message dated 9/25/2002 12:26:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu forwarded on behalf of Mme Chabert d'Hyères
who writes:
>[D05; L, 579; pc] : KAI hOTE EGENETO AUTW ETH DWDEKA
>[NA27] : KAI hOTE EGENETO ETWN DWDEKA
>
>Chabert: I would summarize as follows the rule governing indication of
>years of age in Greek: (1) With EINAI (frequently implicit) and the
>genitive followed by a cardinal number, often modalized by insertion of
>hWS; indicates the year in which one is currently (e.g., the twentieth
>year, prior to reaching one's twentieth birthday); (2) With GIGNOMAI and
>the accusative of duration followed by the cardinal number; indicates time
>elapsed; twenty years elapsed and the twenty-first year begun. In view of
>these rules, how should we interpret the reading of NA27 with GIGNOMAI and
>the genitive?
>
And I replied:
___________________________
In NA27 the use of GIGNOMAI with the specification of age would seem to
follow upon v. 41 where it is specified that POREUONTO hOI GONEIS AUTOU
KAT' ETOS EIS IEROUSALHM . . . What GIGNOMAI would do would be to signify
that it was not until he had become 12 that this took place. DWDEKA is the
object of GIGNOMAI with ETWN functioning either as a partitive genitive
("twelve of years") or as a genitive of time within which it occurred.
Both BAGD and BDAG cite Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, 1.2.40 which reads
LEGETAI GAR ALKIBIADHS, PRIN EIKOSIN ETWN EINAI
Unfortunately, EIKOSIN is indeclinable and PRIN can take either a genitive
or an accusative so it is dependent upon the relationship of EIKOSIN to the
verb EINAI to reveal that it must be an accusative.
My inclination is to take it a a partitive genitive.
_________________________
Dr. Conrad wrote to me offlist asking if I meant to say that DWDEKA was
accusative. Obviously, he is correct in that GINOMAI does not take an
object. Like a good teacher he beat me about the head (figuratively
speaking) when I came up with a too facil answer that it must be a
predicate nominative. He maintained that it must be a genitive although
DWDEKA is indeclinable (Blast those indeclinables!). Since the "F" in my
middle name stands for "Thomas" I checked Smyth _Greek Grammar_ on the
matter and found that he is correct that the form must be considered
genitive. In §1321 Smyth states
"The use of the genitive to express quality . . . when age or size is
exactly expressed by the addition of a number (genitive of measure, 1325)."
§1325 states
"The genitive denotes measure of space, time, or degree.
OKTW STADIWN TEIXOS a wall eight states long . . ."
I repent in sackcloth and ashes.
gfsomsel
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