[B-Greek] New to the list

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Jan 23 09:26:07 EST 2009


On Jan 23, 2009, at 9:05 AM, Carl Conrad wrote:

>
> 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:

Sorry -- that was a typo. I think the best way to correct it is to  
rewrite it , since those hard-working list-members who scanned, OCR'd,  
reformatted, etc., etc. this major resource, may more properly be  
called "B-Geeks" as a shortened form (haplography?) of "B-Greek Geeks."

I would suggest that one of your best resources is Robert Funk's  
"Beginning-Intermediate Grammar of Hellenistic Greek" which B-Geekers  
have digitized and which is availble online at our B-Greek 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)
>
>
>
> ---
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Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)






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