[B-Greek] New to the list

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Jan 23 09:05:16 EST 2009


On Jan 22, 2009, at 2:35 PM, learngreek at aol.com wrote:

> Hi I'm learning NT Greek and I'd like to know is there a way I can  
> check to
> see if my syntax evaluation is correct? Say, I am studying Eph 1 and  
> I want to
> check to see if in verse 1 XPISTOU IHSOU (of Jesus Christ)is a  
> Genitive of
> description or genitive of possession, or another answer, is there  
> way to see
> if  my answer is correct, without asking the list, or a private  
> teacher?
>
> Jay Johns

Several responses to Jay's questions have pointed to resources for  
parsing, but, as I read the question, it concerns not parsing but  
syntax.
I would suggest that one of your best resources is Robert Funk's  
"Beginning-Intermediate Grammar of Hellenistic Greek" which B-Greekers  
have digitized and which is availble online at our B-Geek web-site:
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/project/funk-grammar/pre-alpha/
= http://tinyurl.com/39xap8

The account of the cases may be accessed at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/project/funk-grammar/pre-alpha/lesson-62.html
= http://tinyurl.com/ar8x74
Scroll down to the section of this page on genitives and read it  
carefully.

My own view is that most primers and grammar reference books tend to  
over-categorize the usages of the ancient Greek genitive case. In my  
own first introduction of the case back when I was teaching, I used to  
say something like this to beginning students:

Genitive case usage tends to fall into three fundamental categories;
1. Pertinentive (commonly called "possessive" but actually much more  
general): a noun in the genitive case construes with another noun; the  
quick-fix equivalent is the English preposition "of" -- but in fact  
the simple hyphenation of the two words is a pretty good starting  
place: PISTIS IHSOU CRISTOU means simply "Jesus-Christ-faith" or  
"faith of Jesus Christ" -- there's nothing in the combination of these  
nouns that will tell you anything more about how the writer/speaker  
has intended you to understand the relationship between the referents  
indicated by the words. But your good sense and examination of the  
context will generally help you make an intelligent guess, after which  
you can refine your English version, if you feel you must have an  
English version.

2. Ablatival: a noun in the genitive case construes either with a  
preposition or with a verbal expression involving separation or  
movement away from the noun in the genitive case; the quick-fix  
equivalent is the English preposition "from" or "away/from" or "out/of."

3. Partitive: a noun in the genitive case construes with a  
preposition, sometimes independently in the sense of "some of" or "one  
of." This will include usages with prepositions like DIA ("through"),  
META ("with"), EPI ("on the surface of") and such expressions as  
NUKTOS "during the night."

That's not exhaustive, but it's a better starter on the genitive, I  
think, then some of the itemized lists of genitive categories and  
subcategories and subscategories of subcategories.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






More information about the B-Greek mailing list