[B-Greek] Gen 4:5 ELUPHSE TON KAIN LIAN

Albert Pietersma albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Tue Sep 20 16:58:23 EDT 2005


Carl is quite right in his grammatical analysis. As Ken noted as well, 
the subject of the verb is the preceding notion of divine rejection. 
Needless to say, the translator had a number of options of conveying 
the same information in Greek.  However, being the kind of translator 
he is, he  not only prefers to reproduce the Hebrew grammatical 
construction as closely as possible but also quantitatively  likes to 
reflect the Hebrew. That is to say, as  best possible, each unit of 
meaning (morpheme) in the source text  is given a counterpart in the 
target text. Thus e.g. in 5a both prepositions of the Hebrew are 
reproduced in the Greek by EPI even though Greek needs only one. 
Similarly, in the second clause, Hebrew L (to/for) is assigned a 
quantitative counterpart in the Greek, namely, TON. To be sure, Greek 
articles play a different grammatical role from Hebrew prepositions, 
but quantitatively the translation is isomorphic.
Al
  On Sep 20, 2005, at 4:22 PM, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

> I really ought to leave this alone, as Al will have his own answer, 
> probably much clearer than mine, but nevertheless ...
>
> The Hebrew does indeed have the L with the verb "it burned"; L'KAIN 
> something like "it burned to/for/at/on Cain" -- as i suggested the 
> other day, "it rubbed Cain the wrong way." My sense is that even in 
> the Hebrew, as clearly in the Greek ELUPHSE TON KAIN, the subject of 
> the verb and complement YICHAR L'QAIN must be the fact previously 
> enunciated, the fact that Cain's sacrifice won no regard.
>
> On Sep 20, 2005, at 2:44 PM, Mitch Larramore wrote:
>
>> Dr. Pietersma:
>>
>> Could you explain this a little further, please.
>>
>>
>>>>> ...KAI ELUPHSE TON KAIN LIAN (...and Cain fretted
>>>>> exceedingly)
>>>>>
>>>>> Any reason for the accusative TON?
>>>>>
>>
>> ...(2) the Hebrew has
>>
>>> the preposition L,
>>> hence a discrete morpheme.  Such items (including
>>> the so-called nota
>>> accusativi) are often represented by the Greek
>>> article.
>>>
>>
>> Are you saying that KAIN is the object of a
>> preposition L? If so, can you give me a "literal"
>> translation of the Hebrew so I can see it. By
>> "discrete morpheme," do you mean a "finite verb"?
>>
>> Mitch Larramore
>> Sugar Land, Texas
>>
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>
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
> cwconrad2 at mac.com
> WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
>
>
—
Albert Pietersma
Professor of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
Home: 21 Cross Street,
Weston ON Canada M9N 2B8
Email: albert.pietersma at sympatico.ca
Homepage: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pietersm




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