Barry Hofstetter wrote:I have always taken τῶν εἰδώλων as dependent on τῶν ἀλισγημάτων, and, because of the repetition of καί and the definite articles, the rest of the genitives as the objects of the preposition. I spot checked the ESV and the NAS and they take it similarly.
Like Stephen Hughes, I'm not quite convinced that the presence or absence of the articles make any difference, especially given Acts 15:29 that he mentioned, and "των αλισγηματων". For whatever it is worth, I found
http://www.mjstudies.com/storage/Mark%207.19b.pdf, which states "four pollutions" on page 10, however it makes some very strange claims, such as that "πορνεια" has to do with ritual impurity, and that both pericopes for Mark 7:19 and Rom 14:20 employ the use of the Greek term "κοινος" ('common,clean') ["κοινος" is supposed to refer to "unclean", not "clean"!].
Stephen Hughes wrote:On the weight of evidence from English translations, I would guess that adding the ἀπὸ has the effect of making it clear that each of the four things relate to the ἀπέχεσθαι, whereas without that ἀπὸ it could be ambiguous.
And I also don't see why the preposition removes the ambiguity, since the four phrases could still be tied to "αλισγηματων".
Unfortunately a rudimentary search of the LXX+NT only turns up 4 lonely examples with multiple genitive phrases, each with the article, modifying a genitive phrase:
[1 Chr 24:6] και εγραψεν αυτους σαμαιας υιος ναθαναηλ ο γραμματευς εκ του λευι κατεναντι του βασιλεως και των αρχοντων και σαδωκ ο ιερευς και αχιμελεχ υιος αβιαθαρ και αρχοντες
των πατριων των ιερεων και των λευιτων οικου πατριας εις εις τω ελεαζαρ και εις εις τω ιθαμαρ
[1 Chr 24:31] και ελαβον και αυτοι κληρους καθως οι αδελφοι αυτων υιοι ααρων εναντιον του βασιλεως και σαδωκ και αχιμελεχ και αρχοντων
πατριων των ιερεων και των λευιτων πατριαρχαι αρααβ καθως οι αδελφοι αυτου οι νεωτεροι
[1 Chr 28:13] και των καταλυματων
των εφημεριων των ιερεων και των λευιτων εις πασαν εργασιαν λειτουργιας οικου κυριου και των αποθηκων των λειτουργησιμων σκευων της λατρειας οικου κυριου
[Ezra 8:29] αγρυπνειτε και τηρειτε εως στητε ενωπιον
αρχοντων των ιερεων και των λευιτων και των αρχοντων των πατριων εν ιερουσαλημ εις σκηνας οικου κυριου
It doesn't really help that all of them involve the same two groups, "the priests and the Levites", which are so closely related. However, the last example shows that the preposition "ενωπιον" does not cause the inner phrases to split into "αρχοντων των ιερεων" and "των λευιτων".
I'm sure that someone with better software and tagged texts can produce more stuff for us to chew on.