[B-Greek] Why is the Genitive different from all other cases?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Mar 13 05:33:20 EST 2006


On Mar 13, 2006, at 4:12 AM, virgil newkirk wrote:

> I imagine you're asking, "What's your point?"
>
> The point is that when we see the genitive case in use it is like a  
> roadside
> sign that says pull in here, there's something more significant I  
> want you
> to take a look at. It's not something that can be appreciated and  
> profited
> from by just driving by and making a notation of..."Oh, look,  
> there's that
> thing!" No, there's a plaque over here with some specifics on it  
> that you
> must read to fully appreciate what is over there...just out of the  
> normal
> line of sight.

I appreciate the direct indication of "the point." The point is  
sometimes difficult to discern in a long post with much quoted  
material. In this instance, we have had another long post with much  
quoted material, but I think I've cited what really IS "the point" of  
the message: it is that when a phrase containes a word in the  
genitive case we need to put it under an intellectual microscope (as  
we would not if it's in some other case-form).

Somehow I think that the genitive case is really the underlying root- 
source of this interminable (and, in my opinion, unedifying)  
discussion of APO PROGONWN in 2 Tim 1:3. We were first told that APO  
PROGONWN means "things having to do with ancestors." Then we were  
told that it means "things having to do with ancestors." We're still  
being told that. And when attention is called to the preposition APO  
governing the genitive case in this phrase, the search seems to be on  
to show how APO when used with PROGONWN can make it mean "things  
having to do with ancestors." And now we're told something that I  
have suspected was being hinted at earlier: the sense "things having  
to do with ancestors" really doesn't depend on APO but upon the  
genitive-case form of PROGONWN.

Now we're told that the genitive-case form means "there's a plaque  
over here with some specifics on it that you must read to fully  
appreciate what is over there ... just out of the normal line of  
sight." The fact is that it is SO FAR OUT OF THE NORMAL LINE OF SIGHT  
that to me and perhaps to one or two others it is altogether  
INVISIBLE. I've never been able to understood this argument that the  
genitive case is somehow privileged over the others, that it somehow  
has a closer link to metaphysical reality or the like. I've thought  
(and still think) that META FILWN means pretty much the same thing as  
SUN FILOIS, that the "friends" are no less real for being indicated  
by a word in the DATIVE case than when they are indicated by a noun  
in the GENITIVE case.

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/




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