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Sequences of Genitives ?= Construct form
I just read 1 John 1.7 where the author strings together a sequence of
genitives
to ai(ma I)hsou tou ui(ou au)tou
the blood of Jesus the son of him
Matthew 1.1 has a longer example
Biblos genesews I)hsou Xristou ui(ou Dauid ui(ou A)braam
book of generation of Jesus Christ son of David son of Abraham
These remind me of `construct chains' in Hebrew (cf Esther 1.5 `in the
court of the garden of the house of the king')
I have two questions:
1) Are long sequences of genitives common in some book of the NT and not
others? ie Do some authors favour them?
2) Is this a Hebraism? (The Matthew example sounds like a direct
translation from Hebrew)
Thanks
James Tauber <jtauber@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Third Year Undergraduate Student
Centre for Linguistics / Department of Mathematics
University of Western Australia, Perth, AUSTRALIA