From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 24 1999 - 06:53:20 EST
At 3:02 PM -0700 12/23/99, John Barach wrote:
>B-Greekers:
>
>Yes, I know Luke 2:2 is a thorny verse. I am aware of four
>interpretations of PRWTH here:
>
> (1) PRWTH is superlative: this was the first of a series of censuses.
> (2) PRWTH is an adjective modifying APOGRAFH: this was the first
>census, [while] Quirinius [was] governing.
> (3) PRWTH has the sense of "before" and the verse should read: "This
>census was *before the census* which Quirinius, governor of Syria, made"
>(Turner, _Grammatical Insights_ 23-24; cf. F. F. Bruce, _NT History_;
>this view seems to be held by J. van Bruggen, _Matteus_, as well).
> (4) PRWTH is adverbial: "This census took place *before* Quirinius
>was governor of Syria" (Higgins).
>
> The problem with (2) is, of course, historical. Was Quirinius
>governor, not only in AD 6 (Josephus) but also earlier, just before the
>time of Jesus' birth? B-Greek is probably not the place to discuss this
>historical possibility.
> The problem with (4) is that PRWTH agrees in gender with APOGRAFH,
>making it much more likely to be an adjective than an adverb (cf.
>Wallace).
> My question is whether (3) is still considered plausible. Wallace
>cites Winer-Moulton: this reading is "awkward, if not ungrammatical."
The last time this was thoroughly hashed out on B-Greek was in late
September and early October of 1998, and the thread may be consulted, if
any one wishes to do so, at the regular web site for the mailing list. My
own view is that none of the above four versions is adequate, that we
should understand PRWTH as adverbial with EGENETO, and that hHGEMONEUONTOS
KURHNIOU THS SURIAS should be understood NOT as a genitive of comparison
but as an ordinary genitive absolute used as an indicator of time. I cite
my own message of September 25, 1998:
--------------------
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 12:21:47 -0500
To: Biblical Greek <b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
From: "Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu>
Subject: Re: PRWTH in Lk 2:2
At 11:15 PM -0500 9/25/98, dd-1@juno.com wrote:
>Denny Diehl here with a question concerning
>
>PRWTH as used in Lk 2:2:
>
>"AUTH APOGRAQH PRWTH EGENETO..."
>
>usually translated: "This was the first census taken..."
>
>In Jn 15:18, PRWTON is translated "before". Is it possible
>to translate PRWTH in Lk 2:2 with "before" making it:
>
>"This was before the census taken..."?
>
>Or is it too awkward to translate it that way? Thank you.
Actually, although the adjectival forms PRWTH and PRWTON in both texts are
predicative, they are nevertheless used in somewhat different ways. Here
are the texts transcribed after the normal BG fashion:
Lk 2:2 hAUTH APOGRAFH PRWTH EGENETO hHGEMONEUONTOS THS SURIAS KURHNIOU
Jn 15:18 EI hO KOSMOS hUMAS MISEI, GINWSKETE hOTI EME PRWTON hUMWN MEMISHKEN.
One fact about PRWTOS/A/ON that is perhaps not adequately appreciated is
that it is a superlative ("foremost," "frontmost") form of an adjective
that has a comparative (PROTEROS/A/ON) but no simple positive form, since
the preposition PRO and the adverb PRIN normally function as a positive
form of the adjective would.
In fact, in Jn 15:18 PRWTON is used predicatively and construed with the
verb MEMISHKEN but with a comparative force that is complemented by the
ablatival genitive hUMWN: "hated me as one (hated) previous than (to) you"
= "hated me earlier than you."
Lk 2:2 is a bit different; although PRWTH is predicative and must be
construed closely with the verb EGENETO, "took place foremost" = "took
place for the first time." To be noted are: (1) there is no comparable
ablatival genitive functioning with PRWTH here as hUMWN functioned with
PRWTON in Jn 15:18; (2) since there is no article with PRWTH that would
clearly mark it as having attributive force and so belonging to APOGRAFH
(it would have to be either hAUTH hH PRWTH APOGRAFH or hAUTH hH APGRAFH hH
PRWTH), it cannot legitimately be understood as meaning "the first census"
but rather must be understood as meaning "took place as the first one."
Perhaps these sound like the mean the same thing in English, but the
difference in the Greek is important: it means that the census had NOT ever
taken place prior to the governorship of Quirinius.
There is another factor here that might conceivably be (and, I'm sure, has
indeed been suggested, since this verse is crucial in its indication of the
year 6 A.D. as the time of the census in question)--perhaps this is even
what you're suggesting in your query: that the genitive hHGEMONEUONTOS THS
SURIAS KURHNIOU should be understood as an ablatival genitive construed
with PRWTH, so that the verse might be understood to mean: "This census was
held before Quirinius was governor of Syria." While on the surface this
might seem plausible, it is so improbable in terms of ordinary idiom that
it doesn't deserve to be taken seriously: (1) Luke does regularly use the
genitive absolute construction with the name of an official to indicate the
year (Lk 3:1ff.); (2) the more normal sort of adverbial construction to
indicate that this census took place before the governorship of Quirinius
would, I think be something like PRIN hHGEMONEUSAI THS SURIAS
KURHNION--i.e. an aorist infinitive with an accusative subject following
upon PRIN; implicit in this, I think, is what seems to me obligatory to
understand as the implication of the present participle hHGEMONEUONTOS:
that the census took place WHILE QUIRINIUS WAS GOVERNING, not before it (or
after it either, for that matter).
In sum, I really don't see any way to construe the Greek so that PRWTH with
that genitive phrase including a present participle of the verb can point
to a census held prior to the governorship of Quirinius.
-------------------------------
In the course of that thread of Sept/Oct 1998 attention was called to an
article by Dan Wallace in his "Professor's Soapbox" at his website dealing
with these difficulties and concluding more candidly than we have in many
of our B-Greek struggles with more-or-less intractable texts, that "there
is no facile solution":
The Problem of Luke 2.2, by Daniel Wallace
http://www.bible.org/docs/soapbox/luke2-2.htm
--Carl W. Conrad Department of Classics/Washington University One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018 Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649 cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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