[B-Greek] APESTALMENOS PARA QEOU
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Dec 18 19:37:57 EST 2003
At 4:50 PM -0700 12/18/03, Wayne Leman wrote:
>In John 1:6 could PARA QEOU in the phrase APESTALMENOS PARA QEOU be
>considered a genitive of agency, rather than a genitive of source?
Interesting question; my initial reaction is to say NO. A check with BDAG
yields this under PARA:
--------------
3. marker of the point fr. which an action originates, from
b w. adjectival function hO , hH, TO PARA TINOS made, given, etc.,
by someone
alpha. w. a noun (funct. as a gen.: Pla., Symp. 197e hO PARA TINOS
LOGOS 'the expression made by someone'; X., Hell. 3, 1, 6 DWRON PARA
BASILEWS ß, Mem. 2, 2, 12 hH PARA TINOS EUNOIA, Cyr. 5, 5, 13 TO PAR' EMOU
ADIKHMA 'the crime committed by me'; Polyb. 3, 69, 3 hH PAR' AUTOU SWTHRIA;
Polyaenus 3, 9, 28 hH PARA STRATHGOU ARETH/; SIG 543, 27; Ex 4:20; 14:13;
Philo, Plant. 14; Jos., Ant. 12, 400; Just., A I, 32, 8 and D. 92, 1 al.;
Ath. 7, 1) hH PAR' EMOU DIAQHKH Ro 11:27 (Is 59:21).-Ac 26:12 v.l.; 22 v.l.
b. w. subst. function
a. TA PARA TINOS what someone gives, someone's gifts (X., Mem. 3,
11, 13; Jos., Bell. 2, 124, Ant. 8, 175; Tat. 32, 1 TA PARA QEOU) Lk 10:7;
Phil 4:18b. TA PAR' AUTHS her property, what she had Mk 5:26 (cp. IPriene
111, 177). TA PARA ZWSHS KAI MENOUSHS ß (the help that I received) from a
living, contemporary voice Papias (2:4).
----------------------
Some of the examples cited sound ALMOST like agent indicators, but it seems
to me that the genitive with all these instances of PARA really is
indicating source rather than performer of an act.
With APESTALMENOS and its clear sense of being dispatched, sent off with a
mission, it seems hard to me to see PARA as other than indicating the
source, even if the source is a person. This may ultimately amount to the
same thing as an indication of the agent, but APESTALMENOS PARA QEOU seems
to me to be underscoring the legitimation of the one sent by indicating the
source rather than the agent. That is, it seems to me that PARA in these
instances means more "deriving from" than "performed by."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list