Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

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Matthew Longhorn
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Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

A new title coming up in Peter Lang’s Studies in Biblical Greek Series.
This one by Ghassan Khalaf
Usage of the adnominal genitive (one or more genitive substantives in relationship to a head noun) is one of most ambiguous aspects of the Greek language of the NT, and thus the source of contentious debate among exegetes. This study finds a way forward in the understanding of the genitive case by examining concatenations of single and multiple genitives, testing methods on the Pauline corpus as a representative sample of adnominal genitive usage in the whole New Testament. The results are offered with a set of rules that are vital in assisting the interpreter in clarifying these often difficult expressions. This book offers fresh insight especially where genitives appear in concatenation, and examines the syntactical configurations of genitive constructions with a view to untangling their semantics
https://www.peterlang.com/abstract/titl ... &result=11
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Thanks for this notice. The way the description is written sounds like it’s mainly about chains of genitives, but maybe there’s more?
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Stephen Carlson wrote: April 26th, 2021, 6:01 am Thanks for this notice. The way the description is written sounds like it’s mainly about chains of genitives, but maybe there’s more?
Unfortunately I don’t know. I will keep an eye on it to see if they give any further info
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

This one has just been published. Their excerpt section gives the table of contents.
I dislike one feature already - end of chapter bibliographies rather than one large one at the end. That aside, it will be interesting to see what he says

https://www.peterlang.com/document/114 ... ils-anchor


From the intro
The present work will investigate what F. Blass and A. Debrunner call “the adnominal genitive,”1 and A. T. Robertson calls “the genitive with substantives.”2 To qualify as an adnominal genitive, a construction must have a nominal related to other nominals via the genitive case. Thus, this study omits all other genitive case uses, such as constructions involving participles, infinitives, verbs, adverbs, and prepositions. The uses of the genitive case in this latter category of construction are much less difficult to construe. The adnominal genitive has been chosen because of the interpretive challenges this kind of genitive creates. The variety of nuances that may arise from linking two or more nouns in a genitive construction is immeasurable, especially when those nouns have symbolic or metaphorical reference.

The genitive case, as a whole, is an enormous and diversified subject for study. It involves a very long history. The genitive originated in the primitive periods of the formation of the Greek language, passing to the Greek language from Sanskrit. It was used in the classical and Hellenistic periods, and has survived into modern ←1 | 2→usage in Modern Greek. The dative case, in comparison, has disappeared from Modern Greek.3

The genitive is used extensively in the NT. A statistical study of the case forms in the New Testament reveals that in terms of frequency the genitive case’s forms come after the nominative and the accusative. Grammarian Daniel B. Wallace informs us that the genitive case occurs 19,633 times in the New Testament—a quarter of the total number of the occurrences of all case forms: 7681 nouns, 4986 pronouns, 5028 articles, 743 participles, and 1195 adjectives.4

Understanding the adnominal genitive can be seen as a critical need for exegesis because the relationship between the “head” noun (nomen regens) and the noun in the genitive (nomen rectum)5 often requires disambiguation. No detailed statistical survey has yet been done on adnominal genitive constructions in the NT. In preparation for this study, I [Ghassan Khalaf] surveyed the Pauline corpus and calculated approximately 1800 two-word adnominal genitive constructions and two hundred adnominal genitives in clusters. It is hoped this survey will lay the groundwork for the same kind of studies that will eventually cover the whole NT.

No comprehensive study of the adnominal genitive in the New Testament has been undertaken. Readers of the standard grammatical tools for the NT know these books’ treatment consists of introductory analyses of the syntax of the genitive. Distinguished grammarians, such as G. B. Winer, J. H. Moulton, A. T. Robertson, F. Blass and A. Debrunner, M. Zerwick, C. F. D. Moule, N. Turner, S. E. Porter, and D. B. Wallace have each made their contribution. The works of those scholars form the basis of many other derivative Greek grammars, but all their analyses of the genitive case—as helpful and insightful as they are—remain limited in scope.6

Several decades passed during the twentieth century without any new major investigation of the genitive case in the NT. All that was available about the genitive had been contained in the traditional NT grammars. A new development, however, occurred in the 1960s. A renewed interest in the genitive arose, driven ←2 | 3→mainly by issues raised by modern linguistic theories and the need for the refinement of Bible translations.


It is difficult to find sustained discussions of adnominal genitive constructions. The works of Harold K. Moulton, Eugene A. Nida and Charles R. Taber, John Beekman and John Callow, Stanley E. Porter and Johannes P. Louw contain the only treatments of the adnominal genitive in the NT that have been done outside the standard grammars.7

One of the most important of the recent studies of the genitive case in the NT appears in the work of D. B. Wallace.8 Wallace utilizes almost all the genitive studies that have been done before him to the date of the release of his grammar in 1996. Yet, due to the inherent limitations of the reference grammar format, his treatment of the adnominal genitive syntax (especially the genitive in concatenations) cannot be comprehensive.

The need for thorough study of all the uses and kinds of adnominal genitives still exists. There is still no treatment of the subject that can be described as comprehensive. This work hopes to begin the task by undertaking a discussion of the usage of the adnominal genitive in the Pauline corpus.
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Jonathan Robie »

It's always dangerous to judge a book by its cover, or a few paragraphs in the introduction. But from what I read here, I would expect him to continue more or less along the lines of Wallace's grammar in its treatment of the genitive, applying it "comprehensively" to the Pauline corpus, i.e. looking at every instance:
One of the most important of the recent studies of the genitive case in the NT appears in the work of D. B. Wallace.8 Wallace utilizes almost all the genitive studies that have been done before him to the date of the release of his grammar in 1996. Yet, due to the inherent limitations of the reference grammar format, his treatment of the adnominal genitive syntax (especially the genitive in concatenations) cannot be comprehensive.

The need for thorough study of all the uses and kinds of adnominal genitives still exists. There is still no treatment of the subject that can be described as comprehensive. This work hopes to begin the task by undertaking a discussion of the usage of the adnominal genitive in the Pauline corpus.
Just guessing, though.
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Matthew Longhorn
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Jonathan Robie wrote: December 8th, 2021, 8:32 am applying it "comprehensively" to the Pauline corpus, i.e. looking at every instance:
That can be a tedious approach for a reader if the same thing keeps being stated, although I value the data it can give as it avoids a pick and choose approach.
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Stephen Carlson »

I’m doing an analysis of the adnominal genitive too as a part of a personal project on grokking Apollonius Canon, so I’m really happy to see this book, even I’m not a fan of the exhaustive sense listing approach that seems to merely document the various contexts that can license an adnominal genitive.

When we talk about the “meaning” or “semantics” of a genitive what are we saying? Is the meaning that only some relation exists between the genitive and its head, or does is it the nature of the relation itself (possession, origin, price, quality, etc.)? Or. do we have polysemy in that sometimes the genitive contributes very little semantic content or in other cases some semantic enrichment (like possession)? Those are the questions I’m interested in. Even if the late Khalaf does not advance this question, I’ll be satisfied with a rather full set of exegeted examples.
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Stephen Carlson wrote: December 8th, 2021, 5:52 pm grokking Apollonius Canon
Ok… what does this mean?!?
If you get the book it would be interesting if you could post some general thoughts once you have read it. I have too much of a backlog to get to it any time soon
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Matthew Longhorn wrote: December 9th, 2021, 4:34 am
Stephen Carlson wrote: December 8th, 2021, 5:52 pm grokking Apollonius Canon
Ok… what does this mean?!?
Trying to understand why the adnominal genitive and its head tend to have the same articulation (i.e., both arthrous or both anarthrous) and what motivates the exceptions to this tendency.
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Re: Khalaf - The Adnominal Genitive in the Pauline Corpus

Post by Matthew Longhorn »

Finally getting to this book. On the lumper/splitter side of life, definitely a splitter. I obviously haven’t included all his analysis. I tried sorting out the format so it showed nicely here like in Word, unfortunately it is taking too much effort, so more of an information dump

Here are just the categories that he gives for where there is a single genitive modifying a noun/noun phrase. I have only given info on the genitive of definition so far, but could post the others when I get round to reading those bits if folks are interested and the mods don't think it will just be posting too much of the material in the book. I am making these notes for myself anyway.

Genitive of definition – “The primary meaning of the genitive case consists of a substantive added to another substantive in order to define it. Although description is also an important function of the genitive, definition is closer to the real nature of the genitive”
  • 1. Possessive “the possessive genitive shows who possesses whom or who possesses what. It indicates also the idea of belonging”
    a. Material
    Col 4:15 - οἶκον αὐτῆς
    b. Abstract principles
    Rom 2:16 - τὸ εὐαγγέλιόν μου
    c. Persons
    Gal 1:10 -Χριστοῦ δοῦλος
    d. Exclusive
    Rom 9:25 -λαόν μου
    e. Body parts
    1 Tim 5:10 -ἁγίων πόδας
    f. Elements of personality
    Rom 9:1 - τῆς συνειδήσεώς μου
    2. Relationship “The genitive of relationship is called as such, because it is concerned with familial or marital relationship. It relates a person to another or a group of persons to their people”
    a. Physical – “… denotes some sort of family relationship
    John 21:15 - Σίμων Ἰωάννου
    i. General
    1 Cor 1:16 - τὸν Στεφανᾶ οἶκον
    ii. Direct
    Eph 6:1 - τοῖς γονεῦσιν ὑμῶν
    b. Figurative – “Figurative relationship refers to the intimate relationship that transcends physical or family relationship
    Rom 8:14 - υἱοὶ θεοῦ
    3. Identification – “… its function “distinguishing two otherwise similar things,” or to focus on one part of the two elements of the parallel, whether it is two or more comparable persons or things”
    1 Cor 10:21 – ποτήριον κυρίου πίνειν καὶ ποτήριον δαιμονίων
    4. Location – “… the noun in the genitive is a geographical place name or nouns that indicate a state or sphere in which a person abides, a group of people dwells, an incident takes place, or where a piece of land is located
    a. Geographical
    1 Cor 16:15 - ἀπαρχὴ τῆς Ἀχαΐας
    b. Metaphorical
    Rom 16:1 - διάκονον τῆς ἐκκλησίας
    5. Association – “The genitive of association indicates a notion of parallelism or company (accompanying) and can be rendered by using adverbs such as: by, with, or along with.
    Rom 8:17 - συγκληρονόμοι δὲ Χριστοῦ
    1 Cor 10:16 - Τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας
    6. Accordance – “The function of this kind of genitive is to limit the standard by which the subject, that is the head word, is measured
    2 Cor 7:10 - ἡ δὲ τοῦ κόσμου λύπη
    7. Ascription-Recipient (Ascribed-to) – “such genitive phrases do not merely contain a defining aspect, but an ascriptive aspect… the head word is used to ascribe a certain value to the genitive”
    Rom 2:4 - τὸ χρηστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ
    8. Appositive (epexegetic) – “It defines who is who and what is what”
    a. Substitution – “the substitute usage… consists of two or more substantives which occur successively, and each substitute
    another by being simply put in apposition to it, I.e. “genitive of simple apposition”"
    Rom 1:7 - θεοῦ πατρὸς / κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
    b. Epexegetic – “additional explanation or explanatory matter”
    John 2:21 - τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ σώματος
Adjectival
1. Descriptive
2. Qualitative
3. Hebrew
4. Attributed
5. Manner

Objective
1. Pure (accusative) objective
2. Advantage
3. Destination
4. Reference
5. Derivation
6. Superlative

Subjective
1. Source
2. Origin
3. Authorship
4. Cause
5. Instrumental
6. Resemblance

Ablatival
1. Separation
2. Partitive
3. Comparison
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