David L. Moore wrote:
>>>Carl's observation that the expression of the angels could
correspond to L'YHWH or L'ADONAI may be a helpful way to understand
the dative QEWi here (Did the angels sing in Hebrew?). The Hebrew
preposition Le is an indicator of the dative, but it may also have
genitive meaning. In the Psalms, for instance, the ancient headings
often carry some such phrase as MiTZMoR LeDaUiD (so Psalm 23). This
phrase is normally translated "A Psalm of David." So the Le
preposition (if that was the expression used by the angels) could
mean "Glory [pertaining] to God," in which case the thought would be
one of the glory justly due His name.
How this kind of meaning should be classified in terms of the
Greek dative is another question. How about dative of posession
(Bl-DeB, #189) and the verb ESTIN (with DOCA as subject) understood?
<<<
This is exactly how I would prefer to construe the exclamation
(except that, for the supplied copula, I may slightly prefer the
optative EIHi over the indicative ESTIN); hence "possession" came
first in my list of possible uses. It surprised me to hear both David
and Carl agreeing; I'm more accustomed to encountering skepticism and
disagreement! Perhaps that will yet come forth from other quarters.
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In Love to God and Neighbor,
Randy Leedy
Bob Jones University
Greenville, SC
RLeedy@wpo.bju.edu
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