Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 26/01/2005 05:48, George F Somsel wrote:

> On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 22:07:12 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> writes:
>  
>
> > Peter:
> >
> > I did not claim that TA APOKEIMENA is the subject of the main 
> > sentence, rather it is a reference that points back to the subject 
> > of the main sentence. I agree that the former is not allowed, but 
> > the latter is. As a neuter plural, it is either nominative or 
> > accusative.
> >
> > As I said before, I am not a Greek expert, so how would one say 
> > "until comes the one to whom they belong"? Whereas proper Greek has 
> > the subject of a verb only as a nominative, could this be a Hebreism 
> > by the translator as Hebrew allows the equivelant of the dative as 
> > the subject of the verb?
> >    
> ____________________
>
> Karl,
>
> Actually, TA APOKEIMENA is nom. as the subject of ELQHi.  It would read
> "until that which is reserved / destined comes to him."
>
>  
But, in partial answer to Karl, the Greek could mean "until that which 
is reserved / destined for him comes", in other words with AUTWi as an 
indirect object of the participle APOKEIMENA. And that just might 
reflect an understanding of the Hebrew $YLH as the relative $- (= 
Aramaic DIY) and LW = "to him", in other words the combination as 
equivalent to modern Hebrew $LW "belonging to him".

A Greek rendering of "until comes the one to whom they belong" would 
have to have a masculine (or feminine) singular subject, either a 
pronoun like AUTOS or hOS, or more likely a participle meaning something 
like "owner". The Greek could I suppose be hEWS AN ELQHi AUTOS hWi 
APOKEIMONTAI, literally "until comes he to whom they are 
reserved/destined", although that leaves quite unsepecified what is 
reserved or destined. But in the sentence as it stands what will come is 
unambiguously the reserved/destined things, not any person.

As for your last point "Hebrew allows the equivelant of the dative as 
the subject of the verb", what do you mean? If you can give an example 
of this in Hebrew, I might understand what Greek construction you have 
in mind. Are you thinking in terms of the $LW type of construction which 
might be understood as "that which belongs to him" and used as a 
subject? But if you have this sense in mind, we have little disagreement 
about the meaning of the verse.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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