[B-Greek] Justin and objective genitives
Alastair Haines
haines at alastairs.com
Mon Mar 7 21:03:39 EST 2011
Dear Professor Ehrman,
it seems you are not satisfied with Stanton (2004:100-101,
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=A7wNGMrAiD0C&pg=PA100 ), who notes
Boanerges is not found in Matthew and Luke, but is found in Mark. Fair
enough.
Is it fair to say, however, that the sentence grammar alone need not resolve
the intended reference of the pronoun, here? Participant reference in the
prior context may well have contributed to presuppositions Justin relied on
his readers utilizing to resolve the "ambiguity" (perhaps participant
reference or perhaps other background information assumed in the discourse).
For what it's worth, I for one am happy to follow Harnack, Stanton and
yourself that autos here refers to Peter. Whether that, in turn, refers to
the canonical gospel of Mark (so Stanton), or to the gospel of Peter (so
yourself) seems like an intriguing *historical* question.
Although I don't like pushing for a decisive grammatical point here any more
than the others who've replied, in favour of your proposed "action noun", I
would think, is its transparent analysability: that is, it's not hard to
construe a "verbal" semantic notion from its component morphemes, as an
"abstracted action". "A document" is hardly an action noun by default in
English, but again, I would think, is quite readily construed as such in
certain contexts, because of its association with the verb "to document".
Best regards,
alastair
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ehrman, Bart D" <behrman at email.unc.edu>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:12 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Justin and objective genitives
> 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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