[B-Greek] John 5:29
L. Harris
ljoharris at ckt.net
Wed Feb 1 06:31:58 EST 2006
> John 5:29
>
> Is it possible that the genitive in life and judgment here is rendered
> "resurrection for life" and "resurrection for judgment" (denoting purpose)
> instead of the possessive "of life" and "of judgment?"
No it is absolutely not possible because the Genitive case dose not denote
purpose.
The Genitive case has two separate basic functions.
1. It is used to make one noun limit or dependent on another. This
relationship is usually shown by the English preposition "of" not "for".
2. It can also be used to indicate motion away from or out of.
If you want this to indicate purpose you are going to have to change the
inflection to the DATIVE case. That means you are going to have to literally
change the actual letters of the words in the text to make them Dative. Then
after you do that you can use the word "for" indicating denoting purpose
instead of the possessive as indicated by the preposition "of".
SUMMERY OF GREEK CASES
(1) NOMINATIVE: subject, predicate nomiative, naming things
(2) GENITIVE: of; away from/out of
(3) DATIVE: to/for; by/with/; in/at
(4) ACCUSATIVE: shows the noun is being addressed directly
It helps to really understand exactly why Greek is called an "inflected"
language. Then you would understand why you can not use the word "for" when
it's in the Genitive case.
Linda Harris
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