[B-Greek] Mark 1.14

Mark Goodacre M.S.Goodacre at bham.ac.uk
Thu Nov 6 05:31:05 EST 2003


On 5 Nov 2003 at 6:52, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

> Is it even necessary to characterize this genitive as either
> "subjective" or "objective"? I've argued here before that these are
> translation matters rather than anything inherent in the Greek
> formulation. All the subcategories of adnominal/adjectival genitive
> listed in many grammars are interpretative categories rather than
> descriptive of anything inherent in the Greek text; I sometimes think
> the nearest thing to this in English is the hyphenated form,
> "God-gospel"--every bit as unspecific as the Greek TO EUAGGELION TOU
> QEOU. -- 

Thanks; point taken about characterizing subjective and objective 
genitives.  But it's the translation issue that I was trying to get 
at by asking whether to read TOU QEOU in Mark 1.14 as an subjective 
genitive.  So let me rephrase my question in this way:  what are the 
merits of a translation that understands TO EUAGGELION TOU QUEOU in 
Mark 1.14 as "the gospel from God".  Contextually, it seems to me 
that this is how it may work.  Jesus has been declared God's AGAPHTOS 
at his baptism, has gone away into the desert to be tested, and now 
goes to Galilee to preach the gospel that God has given to him.  He 
has received the gospel from God, not from anyone else; he is now 
God's prophet and is ready to announce the content of that gospel.  
The content is "The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at 
hand".  And the appropriate reaction is "Repent and believe in the 
gospel" (Mark 1.15).  This time EUAGGELION appears without TOU QEOU --
 it is taken for granted that the gospel has come from God.  Thus the 
content of the gospel is not "God";  God is the source;  the content 
is "The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand."  So the 
sequence of thought is something like this:

(1) Jesus is anointed by God;
(2) Jesus receives the gospel from God
(3) Jesus preaches that gospel
(4) The content of that gospel is that the kingdom of God is at hand
(5) The appropriate reaction to that gospel is to repent and believe 
it.

Mark
-----------------------------
Dr Mark Goodacre                 mailto:M.S.Goodacre at bham.ac.uk
  Graduate Institute for Theology & Religion 
  Dept of Theology                  
  University of Birmingham      
  Elmfield House, Bristol Road     tel.+44 121 414 7512
  Birmingham    B29 6LQ  UK      fax: +44 121 415 8376
  
http://www.theology.bham.ac.uk/goodacre
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