[B-Greek] PSALMOS TWi DAUID

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed May 4 08:01:20 EDT 2011


On May 4, 2011, at 7:54 AM, Mark Lightman wrote:

> 
> 
> --- On Wed, 5/4/11, Barry H. <nebarry at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
> From: Barry H. <nebarry at verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] PSALMOS TWi DAUID
> To: "B-Greek List mail to all" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2011, 4:46 AM
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Peter Streitenberger" <ps2866 at bingo-ev.de>
> To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 6:12 AM
> Subject: [B-Greek] PSALMOS TWi DAUID
> 
> 
>> Dear Friends,
>> what kind of Dative is used in the psalms by the LXX-Translators (z.B. 
>> 3,1;4,1 etc.), when they interprete LeDavid as "Lamed auctoris"? Is this 
>> Dative instrumental: written "by David"?
>> Thank you for any help !
>> Peter, Germany
> 
> Well, if a category is necessary, I would say a dative of possession, "of 
> David."
> 
> ML:  I agree with Barry, and would only add that the dative of possession is very common from Homer on down, maybe just as common as the genitive of possession.  I'm not sure the GNT grammars and textbooks prepare one for how common it is, because, I guess, the genitive of possession is much more common in the GNT. 

It should be noted however (I expect Al Pietersma to chime in here) that this is the LXX's  woodenly-literal rendering of the Hebrew phrase LDVD. The dative of possession certainly is a standard feature of Greek grammar, BUT it is ordinarily used with a form of the verb EINAI, e.g. ESTI MOI PAIS, "I have a child." The fact that the the superscription for this psalm in the LXX reds TWi DAUID almost surely has nothing to do with traditional Greek grammar.

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





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