[B-Greek] Genitive absolute akin to the Latin ablative absolute?
John Barach, Sr
jbarach at motorera.com
Mon May 16 12:31:22 EDT 2011
A good grammar text should explain the genitive absolute, but most are
not as clear in "plain English." So here are my notes about it.
Cheers,
John Barach
http://www.motorera.com
5B Genitive Absolute
1C A special Greek construction which is used to distinguish the
subject of the participle which is different from the subject of the
main verb.
2C In English, confusion results from what is called a dangling
participle
1D After eating our lunch, the boat departed.
2D The intention of this sentence is that we ate our lunch
and then the boat departed; but as it is worded, it sounds as though the
boat ate our lunch.
3D The distinction is obvious in that sentence, but how
about this one:
After eating my lunch, Bill departed. Did I eat my
lunch, or did Bill eat my lunch?
3C In Greek, the confusion is removed by putting the subject of
the participle and the participle itself into the Genitive case, while
the subject of the main verb stays in the Nominative case.
4C Consider this sentence:
1D εἰπόντες ταῦτα οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἀπῆλθον
After they said these things the apostles went away.
2D ἀπόστολοι is the subject of the verb ἀπῆλθον and it has a
direct relation to the participle εἰπόντες.
3D So the subject of the verb is the same subject of the
participle.
5C Consider this sentence:
1D εἰπόντων ταῦτα τῶν μαθητῶν οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἀπῆλον.
After the disciples said these things, the apostles went away.
2D The subject of the verb is ἀπόστολοι
3D The subject of the participle εἰπόντων is μαθητῶν
4D To avoid confusion of subjects, the subject of the
participle is put into the Genitive case (and so is the participle).
5D In this construction, don’t translate it: Of saying these
things of the disciples, the apostles went away.
6D When you see the participle and noun in the Genitive
case, translate it as a statement where the noun is the subject of the
participle.
6C The problem with the boat eating our lunch is solved this way:
φαξάνων ἡμῶν τὸν δεῖπνον, τὸ πλοῖον ἀπῆλθε
After we ate our lunch, the boat departed.
Both ἡμῶν and φαξάνων are in the Genitive case, thus "we"
is the subject of the participle.
7C λέγοντος αὐτοῦ ταῦτα ἀπῆλθον. While he was saying these
things, I went away.
Both λέγοντος αὐτοῦ are in the Genitive to distinguish that
he is doing the saying and I is doing the going.
8C εἶδον αὐτὸν λέγοντα ταῦτα. I saw him while he was saying
these things.
1D The subject of the main verb is different from the person
doing the saying.
2D However, the Genitive Absolute is not used because the
participle has no direct grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence.
3D The participle is in the Accusative case to agree with
the pronoun which it modifies.
9C ταῦτα εἰπόντων τῶν μαθητῶν οἱ δοῦλοι ἦλθον εἰς τὸν οἶκον
After the disciples said these things, the slaves went into the
house.
10C γενομένης ἡμέρας οἱ ποιμένες ἀπῆλθον
When the day came, the shepherds went away.
11C αὐτοῦ λέγοντος ταῦτα οἱ δοῦλοι ἀπῆλθον
While he was saying these things the slaves went away.
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