[B-Greek] Ephesians 2:20 - What kind of Genitive construction?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Feb 7 16:37:07 EST 2005
At 4:12 PM -0500 2/7/05, Rod Rogers wrote:
>I probably have not given this enough consideration myself but I'd still
>appreciate the comments the list might have on the Genitive construction
>in Ephesians 2:20. I always considered ONTOS AKROGWNIAIOU AUTOU IHSOU
>CRISTOU a Genitive Absolute, "a noun and pronoun in the Genitive with a
>Genitive participle" (Machen #266). I see a straight forward translation
>as, "being (the) extreme corner Himself Jesus Christ".
>
>If I'm not misunderstanding, Wallace seems to see this construction as a
>Genitive of Apposition. I guess I'm not seeing #1 which construction it is
>and #2 what the difference is. In situations like this do theological
>presuppositions play more of a part in ones' translation? Anyway, it seems
>to me that if I can't determine the grammar how can I be sure what the
>translation is, even though it seems straight forward in this case?
>
>Ephesians 2:20
>EPOIKODOMHQENTES EPI TW QEMELIW TWN APOSTOLWN KAI PROFHTWN ONTOS
>AKROGWNIAIOU AUTOU IHSOU CRISTOU
I would certainly understand this as a genitive absolute ("Jesus Christ
himself being the cornerstone"; unquestionably the phrase fits in with the
figure of construction governing the text as a whole, but I fail to see how
the genitive phrase is in apposition to the genitives dependent on the noun
QEMELIWi.
Hermeneutics is not something appropriate for discussion on B-Greek, but I
should think that one should endeavor first and foremost to determine
whether the Greek text itself is unambiguous; if there's more than one
legitimate way of understanding the Greek text (as sometimes happens), then
one may look for factors in the context that will assist in tipping the
balance one way or another.
--
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/
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