Actus Apostolorum 9:1

[Brian]

Hello All

Saulus autem, adhuc spirans minarum et caedis in discipulos Domini, accessit ad principem sacerdum.

Why would St. Jerome have put minae and caedes in the genitive? Is there evidence of this use among classical authors? Perhaps this had crept into popular latin by the fourth century.

Brian

[decurion]

I would imagine that it is because of the original Greek, which states that,

Ὁ δὲ Σαῦλος, ἔτι á¼￾νπνέων ἀπειλῆς καὶ φόνου εἰς τοὺς μαθητὰς τοῦ κυÏ￾ίου... (κτλ.)

Here, the present participle á¼￾νπνέων, "breathing," which is translated by the Latin spirans takes the genitive with the sense of "breathing of" or "being laden with," with ἀπειλῆς "threat" and φόνου "murder" corresponding to minarum and caedis.

Usage of á¼￾νπνέω + gen is also attested in Stobaeus, a 5th cent. Greek author, in his excerpts of the philospher Perictione.