I appreciate your objective answers to my question, thank you in advance.
Barry Hofstetter wrote: ↑April 2nd, 2020, 7:38 am
Well, just to clarify, the form is genitive singular. So as it stands, no, it's not possible.
I meant plural in the semantic sense, thanks for the clarification, taking the context in consideration, looking for instance the Living Translation which translates Rev. 22:2 as follows:
Gr: .. "ἐν μέσῳ τῆς πλατείας αὐτῆς καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ ἐντεῦθεν καὶ ἐκεῖθεν
ξύλον ζωῆς ποιοῦν καρποὺς δώδεκα, κατὰ μῆνα ἕκαστον ἀποδιδοῦν τὸν καρπὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὰ φύλλα τοῦ ξύλου εἰς θεραπείαν τῶν ἐθνῶν." ..
.." coursing down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew
Trees of Life,
[a] bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month; the leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.".. The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation.
following on the footnote:
"a) Revelation 22:2 Trees of Life, literally, “The tree of life”—
used here as a collective noun, implying plurality."
Isn´t the same tree or trees that the writer is talking about later on 22:19?
Another instance, on this same translation is Palsm 1:3 :
"They are like
trees along a riverbank bearing luscious fruit each season without fail."
the greek text is: "καὶ ἔσται ὡς
τὸ ξύλον τὸ πεφυτευμένον παρὰ τὰς διεξόδους τῶν ὑδάτων" ..
One last instance is Lev. 26:20 :
"Your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its crops, nor your
trees their fruit."
Gr: "καὶ ἔσται εἰς κενὸν ἡ ἰσχὺς ὑμῶν, καὶ οὐ δώσει ἡ γῆ ὑμῶν τὸν σπόρον αὐτῆς, καὶ
τὸ ξύλον τοῦ ἀγροῦ ὑμῶν οὐ δώσει τὸν καρπὸν αὐτοῦ."
nathaniel j. erickson wrote: ↑April 2nd, 2020, 8:49 am
ξύλον can occasionally have a collective sense when it is used to refer to wood in the sense of "lumber, building material.
These three examples are in the singular morphologically, but can semantically imply a plurality as indicated by the footnote on Rev 22:2?
Notice this last commentary where the writer takes Rev. 2:7 and Rev. 22:2 as .. "the sg. in both cases is collective" .. even though at the end he puts Rev 22:19 as singular. it strikes me out a bit how all these instances are traslated as plural.
-EDNT Dictionary 3627 ξύλον, ου, τό xylon wood*.... "2:7: "give to eat of the tree of life, which is in God's Paradise"; 22:2a: "trees of life on each side of the river bearing fruit twelve times a year" (the construction is ambiguous); 22:2b: "the leaves of the trees are [used] for the healing of the Gentiles"; (the sg. in both cases is collective [contra, e.g., Schmidtke in Erdmann, et al., 23]; see for the subject matter esp. Ezek 47:12; "tree of life" by the water, 1QH 8:5f.; cf. also 4 Esdr 7:123); 22:14: the godly "have the right to the tree of life" (cf. 1 Enoch [Greek] 25:4); 22:19, in the warning at the end of the book as a threat of punishment: a "share in the tree of life." A play on the cross of Christ is not yet evident in these passages in Revelation (contra, recently, H. Kraft, Rev [HNT] 59)" ..