[B-Greek] Titus 2:13
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Aug 14 15:56:35 EDT 2006
On Aug 14, 2006, at 3:08 PM, William Ross wrote:
> Perhaps there is some characteristic of the genitive with which I
> am not
> familiar that makes it obvious that TOU MEGALOU THEOU intends "the
> great god." Please advise. In my present understanding of the
> genitive, the
> construction reads "the great [one] of god." I mean, does hUIOU THEOU
> (Romans 1:4) mean "the son god?"
This is a matter of position of the adjective with regard to the
article and noun -- it's generally handled pretty early in first-
level Greek grammars. An adjective (here MEGALOU) situated between
the article (here TOU) and the noun governed by the article (here
QEOU -- and note that we use "Q" for theta --) is attributive. Rom
1:4 is different, there we have a noun in the genitive hUIOU followed
by another noun in the genitive QEOU; QEOU is genitive dependent upon
hUIOU and so the phrase means "son of God." But the reason why hUIOU
is genitive depends upon the larger structure of vss. 3-4 PERI TOU
hUIOU ... TOU GENOMENOU EK SPERMATOS DAUID KATA SARKA, TOU
hORISQENTOS hUIOU QEOU EN DUNAMEI KATA PNEUMA hAGIOSUNHS EX
ANASTASEWS NEKRWN, IHSOU CRISTOU TOU KURIOU hHMWN. In this structure
hUIOU "son" happens to be in the genitive because ultimately it is in
accord with the hUIOU back in vs. 3 that is object of the preposition
QEOU.
> This issue obviates discussion of GS.
No it doesn't, because TOU MEGALOU QEOU is not independent of its
context; the whole phrase TOU MEGALOU QEOU KAI SWTHROS hHMWN does
conform to the Granville-Sharpe rule in that both nouns -- QEOU and
SWTHROS are governed by the same article TOU.
>
> Bill Ross
>
>
>
> On 8/14/06, Harold Holmyard <hholmyard at ont.com> wrote:
>>
>> William Ross wrote:
>>
>>> Issue #1: Is it really "great god?" I'm not sure that is a
>> foregoneconclusion. The genitive would normally be "great [one] of
>> god" if I
>> am notmistaken. I know of no scriptural precedent for "great god"
>> for either
>> Jesusor the father, except perhaps in the LXX, in the form TOU
>> QEOU TOU
>> MEGALOU(Ezra 5:8) but still not really the kind of title being
>> suggested.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> HH: Yes, it is the "great God." That seems obvious.
>>
>>> Issue #2: Sharp's Rule does not seem to apply.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> HH: Sharp's rule does seem to apply. Here is a summary of it, showing
>> examples quite like this one in Tit 2:13:
>>
>> http://www.geocities.com/lasttrumpet_2000/resources/sharp.htm
>>
>> HH: Please explain why you don't think it applies.
>>
>> Yours,
>> Harold Holmyard
>> ---
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>
>
>
> --
>
> William Ross
> VGB, Argentina
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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