[B-Greek] Justin and objective genitives

Michael Aubrey mga318 at yahoo.com
Mon Mar 7 18:25:45 EST 2011


Carl is right.

Mike Aubrey
http://evepheso.wordpress.com



________________________________
From: Carl Conrad <cwconrad2 at mac.com>
To: "Ehrman, Bart D" <behrman at email.unc.edu>
Cc: "b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Mon, March 7, 2011 1:28:00 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Justin and objective genitives


On Mar 7, 2011, at 4:12 PM, Ehrman, Bart D wrote:

> 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

[KAI TO EIPEIN METWNOMAKENAI AUTON PETRON hENA TWN APOSTOLWN, KAI GEGRAFQAI EN 
TOIS APOMNHMONEUMASIN AUTOU GEGENHMENON KAI TOUTO, META KAI ALLOUS DUO ADELFOUS, 
hUIOUS ZEBEDAIOU ONTAS, EPWNOMAKENAI ONOMATI BOANERGES, hO ESTIN hUIOI 
BRONTHS.... 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?

I would not think so. On the other hand, I am rather dubious of the distinction 
made between "subjective" and "objective" genitives on the basis of whether the 
head noun is a noun of action. I think that any genitive of this sort attached 
to a noun like APOMNHMONEUMATA could mean either "notations of (made by) X" or 
"notations of (concerning) X." Of course, had the author taken pains to make a 
differentiation clear, s/he might have written APOMNHMONEUMATA GEGRAMMENA hUPO + 
gen. or APOMNHMONEUMATA PERI TOU/TWN ... But I really don't think there's any 
grammatical rule that will resolve the question whether he intended these memos 
to be "composed by him" or to be "concerning him." I just don't think the 
question can be resolved on a grammatical basis. Sorry.

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



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