An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

genitive of agent (or a subjective genitive), while in the second sentence ‘love of
money’ must be an objective (or adverbial) genitive. The comparative
conjunctions ‘as…so’ show that ‘love of’is being used in the same way in both
halves of each sentence; therefore, in the first sentence ‘love of God’ is a genitive
of agent (or subjective genitive) and in the second an objective (or adverbial)
genitive.
g Let us now consider the same phrase in another sentence: ‘Romeo loved Juliet
with the coals of burning, with the love of God, with the grave of grasping.’ Here
semantic pertinence suggests that’love of God’ means ‘God-like love,’ en
attributive (or adjectival) genitive. As this sentence suggests, creativity plays a
role in introducing new uses and meanings of forms. Creativity is not absolute,
however, since all speakers are controlled by what Otto Jespersen has called a
“latitude of correctness.” To communicate, that is, a speaker must be governed by
the established and public meanings of lexemes, morphemes, and grammatical
structures. Lewis Carroll imaginatively depicted the tension between the public
meaning of words and morphemes versus the private use of them.
“There’s glory for you!” “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I
meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ” “But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a
nice knock-down argument,’ ” Alice objected. “When I use a word,” Humpty
Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—
neither more nor less.” “The[Page 143] question is,” said Alice, “whether you can
make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty
Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
The grammarian and lexicographer are on Alice’s side. 14
9.5 Species of the Genitive
a The noun-noun genitive phrase or construct chain is “immensely versatile and
hardworked.” 15 Three major kinds of construct chain can be distinguished:
subjective, ad-verbial, and adjectival. 16 In what follows, C designates the
14 For both Jespersen and Carroll, see G. B. Caird, The Language and Imagery of the
Bible (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1980) 38, 40.
15 To borrow C. F. D. Moule’s phrase for the Greek genitive; An Idiom Book of New
Testament Greek (2d ed.; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1959) 37.
16 That is, roughly, nominative, accusative, and genitive.