The genitive absolute

A genitive absolute consists of a noun or a pronoun, with an associated participle, all in the genitive case. In almost all cases, there is no grammatical relationship between the noun/pronoun and participle of the genitive absolute, and the rest of the sentence.

Perfectly clear?

Consider the following two sentences in English:

Although the dog was barking, the thief entered the house.
While he was talking, the class took notes.

The first phrase in each sentence is the equivalent (in classical and koine Greek) to a genitive absolute. We have:

a noun or pronoun ('the dog', 'he'),

and

a participle ('was barking', 'was talking')

and those elements are not grammatically related to the rest of the sentence. The dog was barking, but the thief entered the house. The man was talking, but the class took notes.

Of course there is some relationship between the elements: the dog might be barking because he hears the thief, and the class is taking notes, presumably, because a teacher is talking. But the relationship is not a grammatical one; more specifically, the subject of the first phrase of the sentence is not the subject of the second.

The genitive absolute was used in both classical and koine Greek: it exists in modern Greek as well, but less commonly, and generally within stereotyped phrases or a formal context.

In Matthew 1:18 (unfortunately for pedagogy!) the genitive absolute is an exception: its subject (Mary) is the same as the subject of the sentence; i.e., Mary was betrothed, and Mary was found to be pregnant. Such is Greek.

We'll finish the rest of the verse on Monday. Χαίρετε!

Matthew 1:18, continued

Mνηστευθείσης της μητρός αυτού Μαρίας τῳ Ιωσήφ,
πριν ή συνελθείν αυτούς ευρέθη εν γαστρί έχουσα
εκ πνεύματος αγίου.

This is a difficult passage in terms of sentence structure. We start with the word 'μνηστευθείσης', which is a participle, that is, a part of speech with both verb and adjective aspects (see the post of 21 October 2008 for a fuller discussion of participles).

In this case the participle comes from the verb 'μνηστεύω', meaning (in the active sense) 'to ask in marriage'. But in the New Testament this verb is found only in passive forms; i.e., 'to be asked in marriage, to be betrothed'.

A participle agrees with the noun it modifies, which in this case is 'της μητρός . . . Μαρίας', 'the mother . . . Mary'. The participle itself (μνηστευθείσης), plus the words for 'mother' (μητρός), and 'Mary' (Μαρίας) are all in the feminine, genitive, singular form. We will discuss why they are in the genitive in a moment. But for now, look at the word 'αυτού', which is between 'μητρός' and 'Μαρίας'.

The word 'αυτού' is the genitive singular form of a masculine pronoun, here meaning 'his'. So we have:

της μητρός αυτού Μαρίας
the mother his Mary

i.e., 'his mother Mary'.

What about his mother Mary? The participle explains:

μνηστευθείσης της μητρός αυτού Μαρίας
being betrothed the mother his Mary

i.e., his mother Mary being betrothed.

Betrothed to whom?

μνηστευθείσης της μητρός αυτού Μαρίας τῳ Ιωσήφ
being betrothed the mother his Mary to the Joseph

i.e., his mother Mary being betrothed to Joseph.

The definite article/noun combination 'τῳ Ιωσήφ' is in the dative case; that case often indicates that we should add the word 'to' or 'for'.

But we still haven't addressed the problem mentioned above: why are the words of the phrase 'μνηστευθείσης της μητρός . . . Μαρίας' all in the genitive? The answer is that this phrase is our first example of a genitive absolute, an odd Greek construction in which a subject and a modifying participle--both in the genitive case--form a clause which is set off from the rest of the sentence.

More on the genitive absolute on Friday . . . .

Χαίρετε!

The Lord's Prayer

Here's the Lord's Prayer in Greek, together with a more-or-less word for word translation. To hear the prayer read using a modern Greek pronunciation, click on the title of this post. You should be directed to a page on box.net, where you can click on a file named 'Lord's Prayer.wma'. Click on that, then click 'open', and you should be able to hear the reading.

My apologies if this does not work as I hope. I am just now learning to add audio to the blog.

Πάτερ ημών, ο εν τοις Ουρανοίς,
Father of us, who [is] in the Heavens

αγιασθήτω το όνομά Σου,
be holy the name of You

ελθέτω η βασιλεία Σου,
let come the kingdom of You

γενηθήτω το θέλημά Σου,
be accomplished the will of You

ως εν Ουρανώ και επί της γης.
as in Heaven also on the earth.

Τον άρτον ημών τον επιούσιον
The bread ours for the coming day

δος ημίν σήμερον,
give to us today,

και άφες ημίν τα οφειλήματα ημών,
and forgive to us the trespasses ours

ως και ημείς αφίεμεν τοις οφειλέταις ημών.
as even we forgive the debtors ours

Και μη εισενέγκης ημάς εις πειρασμόν,
And do not lead us to temptation

αλλά ρύσαι ημάς από του πονηρού.
but deliver/save us from the evil one.

Matthew 1:18

We start with:

Του δε Ιησού Χριστού η γένεσις ούτως ην.

Of the and/_ Jesus Messiah the birth thus was.

With the English word order mimicking the Greek, the meaning is a bit obscure. We move the 'δε' to the beginning of the phrase, as usual:

And of the Jesus Messiah the birth thus was.

Also note that 'του' ('the'), 'Ιησού', and 'Χριστού' all belong together; they are all genitive, singular, masculine, and refer to Jesus: of the Jesus Messiah. If we are reading this phrase word by word, without looking for the sense of the whole, this is confusing; why genitive? why 'of'? But that becomes clear shortly. In the meantime, English does not generally use 'the' before proper names, so we can translate these three words as:

of Jesus Christ, or (putting the 'the' back in, in a different place):
of Jesus the Messiah

Remember that the word 'of' must be included here. There is no separate word meaning 'of' in the Greek, but the possessive meaning is inherent in the ending of the pronoun and noun.

ο Ιησούς . . . . . (the) Jesus (nominative form)
του Ιησού . . . . . of (the) Jesus (genitive)
τῳ Ιησού . . . . . . to/for (the) Jesus (dative)
τον Ιησούν . . . . (the) Jesus (accusative)

In this case the 'ς' of the nominative case is dropped in the genitive and dative case, and changes to a 'ν' in the accusative.

The next two words form the subject of the phrase: 'η γένεσις'. In Matthew 1:1, this word is often translated 'genealogy'; here, it can be translated 'birth'.

So, the subject of the phrase is 'the birth' (of Jesus the Messiah).

The word 'ούτως' means 'thus', 'so', 'in this manner'.

And finally, the verb: 'ην'. This form is the imperfect indicative, third person singular of the Greek verb 'ειμί' ('I am'). It means, in other words, 'was'. So we have:

And the birth of Jesus the Messiah was thus-- (implying an explanation to follow).

The explanation begins in the next part of the verse, which we will look in a few days.

Χαίρετε!

Matthew 1:17; a few final words

There are only two words left that we haven't seen before:

πάσαι and δεκατέσσαρες

The first word - πάσαι - is an adjective meaning, generally, 'every' or 'all'. (Don't forget to check Matthew 1:17 on www.greekbiblestudy.org for all forms of this adjective.)
The adjective's exact meaning depends on context, and particularly whether or not the modified noun is accompanied by the definite article. For example:

1) When the noun is not accompanied by an article, the meaning is 'every', 'all', 'each':

πας άνθρωπος
each/every person

πάσα πόλις
each/every city

πάσαι πόλεις
all cities

2) When a singular noun is accompanied by an article, the meaning is more 'the whole of':

πάσα η πόλις
all the city (the whole city)

3) But when a plural noun is accompanied by an article, as it is in Matthew 1:17 ('πάσαι αι γενεαί') the meaning is 'all', as in 'all of a group'.

Thus 'πάσαι αι γενεαί' simply means all the generations taken together as a group.

The second word, δεκατέσσαρες, is the word 'fourteen': it is a combination of the Greek word for ten ('δέκα') and the Greek word for four ('τέσσαρες').

So - all the generations from Abraham to David - taken together - are fourteen; but where is the verb? In fact, there is no verb at all in this verse. The Greek 'I am' or 'to be' verb ('ειμί' - we haven't seen it yet) is understand from the context and must be added in an English translation; in classical and koine Greek it is common for this verb to be left out when its meaning can be assumed.

Χαίρετε!

Matthew 1:17

Πάσαι ούν αι γενεαί από Αβραάμ έως Δαυίδ γενεαί δεκατέσσαρες,
και από Δαυίδ έως της μετοικεσίας Βαβυλώνος γενεαί δεκατέσσαρες,
και από της μετοικεσίας Βαβυλώνος έως του Χριστού γενεαί δεκατέσσαρες.

All therefore the generations from Abraham until David generations fourteen,
and from David until the carrying away of Babylon generations fourteen,
and from the carrying away of Babylon until the Messiah generations fourteen.

Let’s start with a preposition and an adverb. The word ‘από’ is a preposition; in this case, one which is always followed by the genitive. The reason you don’t see a genitive form of ‘Αβραάμ’ or ‘Δαυίδ’ is because these names are indeclinable; they are spelled the same regardless of case. However you do see the genitive in the final instance:

από της μετοικεσίας
from (the time of) the carrying away

‘Από’ has a general sense involving separation; it can be translated ‘out of’ or ‘from’ or ‘away from’.

The adverb is ‘έως’, which here means ‘until (the time of)’. The difference between a preposition and an adverb is (at least, to me) a subtle one, and in any case does not seem to produce any issues in translation.

The word ‘ούν’ is a postpositive conjection; like ‘δε’, it cannot stand as the first word in its phrase. It can be translated as ‘so’, or ‘therefore’.

A key word in this verse is the noun ‘γενεά’, meaning ‘generation’. This noun is feminine, and is declined as follows:

η γενεά . . . . . . . . . the generation (nominative singular)
της γενεάς . . . . . . .of the generation (genitive singular)
τῃ γενεᾴ . . . . . . . . .to/for the generation (dative singular)
την γενεάν . . . . . . the generation (accusative singular)

αι γενεαί . . . . . . . . the generations (nominative plural)
των γενεών . . . . . . of the generations (genitive plural)
ταις γενεαίς . . . . . . to/for the generations (dative plural)
τας γενεάς . . . . . . . the generations (accusative plural)

In Matthew 1:17 we see this noun four times in the nominative plural: once with the definite article (‘αι γενεαί’) and three times without (‘γενεαί’).

Incidentally, the on-line New Testament at www.greekbiblestudy.com has some extremely useful features. Not only are the Greek words color-coded (blue for nouns, red for verbs, etc.) but if you mouse over a word you get its definition, and parsing, and all the forms in which this word is found in the New Testament (click on ‘Show NT Forms’). For ‘γενεά’, for example, you will get all the forms I’ve just listed above.

More on this verse tomorrow. Χαίρετε!

Matthew 1:16, continued

Ιακώβ δε εγέννησεν τον Ιωσήφ τον άνδρα Μαρίας,
εκ ης εγεννήθη Ιησούς ο λεγόμενος χριστός

Jacob fathered the Joseph the husband of Mary,
from whom was born Jesus the one called Messiah

We've already seen that 'Jesus' ('Ιησούς') is the subject of the last phrase. The word 'ο' is the masculine singular nominative definite article, here being used somewhat as a pronoun:

Jesus, the one called
Jesus, he who is called

The next word, 'λεγὀμενος', is our first example of a participle, a part of speech which is very important in Greek. In the sentence

'The woman walking down the street is my mother.'

the word 'walking' is a participle. It is verb-like, in that it refers to an action; but also adjective-like, in that it modifies a noun ('woman'). Participles can be thought of, then, as verbal adjectives. They agree with the noun they modify in number, gender, and case.

Consider the following three examples:

Ο απόστολος λεγόμενος Πέτρος εστίν πιστός.
The apostle called Peter is faithful.

H γυνή λεγομένη Σοφία εστίν πιστή.
Τhe woman called Sofia is faithful.

Βλέπω τον απόστολον λεγόμενον Πέτρον.
I see the apostle called Peter.

In the first example, the participle 'λεγόμενος' is in its masculine, singular, nominative form, to agree with 'ο απόστολος', which is also masculine, singular, and nominative.

In the second example, the participle, while still meaning 'called', changes its form to 'λεγομένη', indicating that the word it modifies ('γυνή', 'woman') is feminine, singular, and nominative.

In the third example, the participle is in the masculine, singular, accusative form, because in this sentence 'τον απόστολον', which the participle modifies, is the direct object as opposed to the subject of the sentence.


A final word about the word 'Χριστός'. English speakers tend to read this word as 'Christ' and let it go at that. 'Christ' has become a standard epithet for Jesus - just another name. A koine Greek dictionary, however, will tell you that 'Χριστός' is the equivalent of the Hebrew word which we read as 'Messiah.' In addition, the Greek word is related to the verb 'χρίω', which means 'to annoint (with scented oil)'. Thus, Χρίστος can also be thought of as having the meaning 'the anointed one.'

I've no doubt much more has been written on this single word, and would welcome additional enlightenment from any reader.