[B-Greek] Habbakuk 2:4b - objective genitive?

Eric S. Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Fri Dec 18 14:39:10 EST 2009


But my question is actually one removed from how the translator of the LXX read or 
understood or misunderstood or misread the Hebrew text.
 
I'm asking if a reader/interpreter/expositor of the LXX could have read EK PISTEWS MOU 
in Habbakuk 2:4b and felt the freedom to regard or treat it as an objective genitive for 
interpretive and midrashic purposes because it's grammatically possible (let alone because 
he might have, rightly or wrongly, felt that was its proper sense).
 
I think the fact that it's grammatically possible/allowable opens up the possibility that it's 
interpretively possible, too. Whether that is what Paul meant by his use of Habbakuk 2:4b 
(though without the MOU) in Romans 1:16-17 to support what he means by PISTIS and 
PISTEUW there is a separate question, but if this is a possibility, then I think it has to be 
considered among other options for interpreting Paul in Romans 1:16-17 and elsewhere.
 
- - -
Eric S. Weiss 

--- On Fri, 12/18/09, George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com> wrote:


From: George F Somsel <gfsomsel at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Habbakuk 2:4b - objective genitive?
To: "Brian Abasciano" <bvabasciano at gmail.com>, b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org, "Weiss, Eric" <papaweiss1 at yahoo.com>
Date: Friday, December 18, 2009, 1:18 PM


There are a few things of which we are reasonably sure.  One of these is that the translators of the LXX tended to translate rather literally.  The difference between "my faith" and "his faith" is the difference between reading a waw or a yod in the Hebrew.  Another secure fact is that the pronominal suffix of the Massoretic text at this point being a waw is in some scripts little different from the yod.  It therefore seems most likely that the waw was confused for a waw.  There is a passage in the MT which speaks of having faith in God

וְעַד־אָנָה לֹא־יַאֲמִינוּ בִיἕως τίνος οὐ πιστεύουσίν μοι 
hEWS TINOS PISTEUOUSIN MOI
(Num 14.11)

"How long will they not have faith in me?"

Note that this is not expressed by a pronominal suffix but rather by a preposition with the pronominal suffix.  I'm sure that the translators were well aware of this and would not have translated it so as to imply that they would have understood ἐκ πίστεώς μου EK PISTEWS MOU as "faith in me" (or "believing me").

 george
gfsomsel 


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________ 




________________________________
From: Brian Abasciano <bvabasciano at gmail.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org; "Weiss, Eric" <papaweiss1 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Fri, December 18, 2009 11:52:06 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Habbakuk 2:4b - objective genitive?

To answer your question simply and straightforwardly, Eric, I believe it is 
pretty certain that an objective genitive is possible here. Of course, it is 
another question whether it is probable.

God bless,

Brian Abasciano

> Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:01:17 -0800 (PST)
> From: "Eric S. Weiss" <papaweiss1 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [B-Greek] Habbakuk 2:4b - objective genitive?
> To: b-greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <521485.19175.qm at web65609.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> AMBAKOUM 2:4b: hO DE DIKAIOS EK PISTEWS MOU ZHSETAI
> ?
> Both Brenton and NETS translate this as: "but the just shall live by my 
> faith" (NETS notes
> "Or faithfulness").
> ?
> Is it possible for?MOU to not be?a possessive genitive, but an objective 
> genitive - i.e., "but
> the just [man/person] shall live by/because-of?his faith in Me"?
> ?
> - - -
> Eric S. Weiss
> ?
>
>
>
>

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