Re[3]: Dative of extent of time?

Wes.Williams@twcable.com
Thu, 22 Aug 96 14:10:03 MST

>
> >> Why dative here? AT Robertson discusses at some length the use of the
> dative to express extent of time and ends up saying, "Certainly the
> accusative is the most frequent idiom in the N.T. for the idea of extension
> of time, as can be seen in Mk 2:19, Lk 13:8, Ac 13:18, Rev 20:3, etc. In Jn
> 14:9 WH have TOSOUTON XRONON in the text and put TOSOUTWi XRONWi in the
> margin." BDF (Blass, I think), #201: "The temporal dative in answer to the
> question 'how long?' is used instead of the accusative, contrary to
> classical usage. Its position is secure, however, only with transitive
> verbs along with scattered examples with the passive, while the acusative
> is retained with intransitives." John 14:9 is apparently an exception, in
> that TOSOUTWi XRONWi here appears with the intransitive verb EIMI. It
> appears there is meager MS support for TOSOUTON XRONON (Vaticanus
> included?); the dative must be original.<<

_________________________

Good observation Carl.

Thanks for the feedback on the previous examples. Please disregard my
investigative heart, but I did a search in the Septuagint to see if it had some
examples. Would not Job 32:6 qualify also?

LXT Job 32:6 u`polabwn de Elious o` tou Baracihl o`
Bouziths eipen newteros men EIMI TWi XRONWi u`meis
de este presbuteroi ...

NIV Job 32:6 So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said:
"I am young in years, and you are old; ...

How about Jer 31:1 with ESOMAI?

LXT Jeremiah 38:1 en TWi XRONWi ekeinw eipen kurios ESOMAI eis qeon tw genei
Israhl
NIV Jeremiah 31:1 "At that time," declares the LORD, "I will be the God of
all the clans of Israel,

The problem with GINOMAI is that there is the idiomatic EGENETO ("it came to
be at that time..."), so I am unsure if it should be considered but cannot
find a grammatical reason to disqualify it. Here is one example:

LXT Genesis 26:1 egeneto de limos epi ths ghs cwris tou limou tou proteron os
EGENETO en TWi XRONWi tw Abraam

NIV Genesis 26:1 Now there was a famine in the land-- besides the earlier
famine of Abraham's time--

Sincerely,
Wes