[B-Greek] Justin and objective genitives

Ehrman, Bart D behrman at email.unc.edu
Mon Mar 7 16:12:47 EST 2011


Greekers,

     There is a much disputed passage in Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho, which may indicate (or not) that he was familiar with a Gospel of Peter:

Καὶ τὸ εἰπεῖν μετωνομακέναι αὐτὸν Πέτρον ἕνα τῶν ἀποστολῶν, καὶ γεγράφθαι ἐν τοῖς ἀπομνημονεύμασιν αὐτοῦ γεγενημένον καὶ τοῦτο, μετὰ καὶ ἄλλους δύο ἀδελφοῦς, υἱοῦς Ζεβεδαίου ὄντας, ἐπωνομακέναι ὀνόματι Βοανεργές, ὅ ἐστιν υἱοῖ βροντῆς.... Dial 106.3

     Justin refers to the “Memoirs” on fifteen occasions in his writings; most of the time the term occurs with a genitive of origin or source: “the Memoirs of the apostles.”  In one instance Justin states unequivocally what he means – these are “the Gospels”: οἱ γὰρ ἀπόστολοι ἐν τοῖς γενομένοις ὑπ’ αὐτῶν ἀπομνημονεύμασιν, ἅ καλεῖται εὐαγγέλια (I Apol. 66.3).

    In the passage I’m interested in, Dialogue 106.3, the debate is over whether he is referring to the Gospel of Peter (presumably, though not certainly, the same as discovered in the Akhmim fragment in 1886-87), the Gospel of Mark (as the “memoirs of Peter” as in Papias), or the “Gospel of Jesus.”  In the latter case, the genitive in the phrase ἐν τοῖς ἀπομνημονεύμασιν αὐτοῦ is some kind of objective genitive – the Gospel that has Jesus as its object.

     My question is not about the relative plausibility of any of these options per se (I think he’s referring to a Gospel of Peter and, personally, find the Mark option implausible), but about the claim that this is probably (or could be) an objective genitive.  An objective genitive, of course, is used with nouns that imply some kind of action: love, hate, vision, and so on.   Does απομνημονευματα count as a noun of action?


n  Bart Ehrman

Bart D. Ehrman
James A. Gray Professor
Department of Religious Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

http://www.bartdehrman.com<http://www.bartdehrman.com/>







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