Unusual word order? Josh 21:34
Posted: July 14th, 2011, 7:47 am
Here is a statement that I think uses unusual word order.
Josh 21:34, κύριος ὁ θεὸς αὐτῶν ἐστιν.
This is typically translated "The Lord is their God" (e.g., NETS), but the grammar marks θεός as the subject (i.e., with the article). If that is the case, then it ought to be, I think, "Their God is Lord." The only alternates I see are to take κύριος ὁ θεὸς as a single phrase, but that would be "The Lord God is theirs"--awkward-- or, "He/it is the Lord their God"--but taking the subject from the verb gives no antecedent that makes sense in the context (God has not been mentioned and the only nouns are βωμόν and μαρτύριόν--and no Jew would say the memorial altar was god.)
predicate nominative/complement > subject > linking verb is, so far as I can tell, a rarely attested word order. I can find no examples of this pattern in the NT and only one other in LXX: Isa 30:18, κριτὴς κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ἐστιν, "The Lord our God is judge."
Or is there some other explanation for this statement? Or is this pattern more common than I've been able to document?
Josh 21:34, κύριος ὁ θεὸς αὐτῶν ἐστιν.
This is typically translated "The Lord is their God" (e.g., NETS), but the grammar marks θεός as the subject (i.e., with the article). If that is the case, then it ought to be, I think, "Their God is Lord." The only alternates I see are to take κύριος ὁ θεὸς as a single phrase, but that would be "The Lord God is theirs"--awkward-- or, "He/it is the Lord their God"--but taking the subject from the verb gives no antecedent that makes sense in the context (God has not been mentioned and the only nouns are βωμόν and μαρτύριόν--and no Jew would say the memorial altar was god.)
predicate nominative/complement > subject > linking verb is, so far as I can tell, a rarely attested word order. I can find no examples of this pattern in the NT and only one other in LXX: Isa 30:18, κριτὴς κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν ἐστιν, "The Lord our God is judge."
Or is there some other explanation for this statement? Or is this pattern more common than I've been able to document?