Question on Declension of γη ('earth')

[Prometheus]

I'm a near-beginner in all sorts of ancient Greek (self-taught), and I've been trying to identify the use of cases in this passage of Genesis. Could someone please correct my guesses and/or comment on why such-and-such a case is used? (Things like the "genitive of separation" are particularly puzzling to me.) Thanks!

1 Και συνετελέσθησαν ο ουÏ￾ανος και η γη (NOMINATIVE SING.) και πας ο κόσμος αυτων....
4 Αυτη ή βίβλος γενέσεως ουÏ￾ανου και γης (GENITIVE SING.), oτε εγένετο, η ημέÏ￾α εποίησεν ο θεος τον ουÏ￾ανον και την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.)...
5 και παν χλωÏ￾ον αγÏ￾ου Ï€Ï￾ο του γενέσθαι επι της γης (DATIVE SING.?) και παντα χόÏ￾τον αγÏ￾ου Ï€Ï￾ο του ανατειλαι ου γαÏ￾ εβÏ￾εξεν ο θεος επι την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.?), και άνθÏ￾ωπος ουκ ην εÏ￾γάζεσθαι την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.).
6 πηγη δε ανέβαινεν εκ της γης (GENITIVE SING.?) και επότιζεν παν το Ï€Ï￾όσωπον της γης (GENITIVE SING.).
7 και επλασεν ο θεος τον άνθÏ￾ωπον χουν απο της γης (GENITIVE SING.?) και ενεφÏ￾σησεν εις το Ï€Ï￾όσωπον αυτου πνοην ζωης, και εγένετο ο άνθÏ￾ωπος εις ψυχην ζωσαν.

(The text is from the second chapter of Genesis according to the Septuagint text on http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/physis/s ... esis/2.asp. I posted this last month on the little-used Ancient Greek tutorial site http://www.kypros.org/LearnGreek/course/view.php?id=11 but didn't get any replies.)

[modus.irrealis]

Hi,

Here are some quick comments that I hope are clear enough.

1 Και συνετελέσθησαν ο ουÏ￾ανος και η γη (NOMINATIVE SING.) και πας ο κόσμος αυτων....

Nom. is right -- here because γῆ is part of the subject of συνετελέσθησαν, "the heaven and the earth were finished."

4 Αυτη ή βίβλος γενέσεως ουÏ￾ανου και γης (GENITIVE SING.),

Gen. is right -- here because it's the "origin OF heaven and earth."

oτε εγένετο, η ημέÏ￾α εποίησεν ο θεος τον ουÏ￾ανον και την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.)...

Acc. is right -- here because γῆν is the object of á¼￾ποίησεν, "God made the heaven and the earth."

5 και παν χλωÏ￾ον αγÏ￾ου Ï€Ï￾ο του γενέσθαι επι της γης (DATIVE SING.?)

Here it's also genitive (the dative would be γῇ) -- it's genitive because of the á¼￾πί, but it's more complicated than that because á¼￾πί can be used with the genitive, dative, or the accusative. When it comes to using á¼￾πί in terms of place, i.e. meaning "on", very roughly, the genitive (or the dative, but I believe that's rarer for this preposition) is used with verbs not denoting motion and the accusative for verbs of motion. So I would say it's genitive here because there's no motion involved -- it's simply about being on the earth.

και παντα χόÏ￾τον αγÏ￾ου Ï€Ï￾ο του ανατειλαι ου γαÏ￾ εβÏ￾εξεν ο θεος επι την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.?),

Acc. is right -- here it's with the á¼￾πί which takes the accusative and I would say because of the motion involved in God making it rain upon the earth.

και άνθÏ￾ωπος ουκ ην εÏ￾γάζεσθαι την γην (ACCUSATIVE SING.).

Acc. is right -- here because γῆν is the object of á¼￾Ï￾γάζεσθαι, "to till the earth."

6 πηγη δε ανέβαινεν εκ της γης (GENITIVE SING.?)

Gen. is right -- here because of á¼￾κ, which only takes the genitive.

και επότιζεν παν το Ï€Ï￾όσωπον της γης (GENITIVE SING.).

Gen. is right -- here because it's "the face OF the earth."

7 και επλασεν ο θεος τον άνθÏ￾ωπον χουν απο της γης (GENITIVE SING.?) και ενεφÏ￾σησεν εις το Ï€Ï￾όσωπον αυτου πνοην ζωης, και εγένετο ο άνθÏ￾ωπος εις ψυχην ζωσαν.

Gen. is right -- here because of ἀπό, which takes the genitive.

[Bombichka]

When it comes to using á¼￾πί in terms of place, i.e. meaning "on", very roughly, the genitive (or the dative, but I believe that's rarer for this preposition) is used with verbs not denoting motion and the accusative for verbs of motion.

Actually, in classical Attic, dat. is the case with which á¼￾πί is used to signify place. á¼￾πί + gen. means something completely different, "in the times of, in the generation of...".

the use of á¼￾πί meaning "on" with the Genitive in the Septuagint is one of the koine features of the text and has something to do with the tendency of the Dative case to disappear from the language (Modern Greek has no Dative).

[Prometheus]

Thanks for your help! That clears a lot of things up. (Compared to Sanskrit, which I'm more familiar with, it looks like the Genitive must have taken over the job of the missing Locative and Ablative cases.)

[modus.irrealis]

Actually, in classical Attic, dat. is the case with which á¼￾πί is used to signify place. á¼￾πί + gen. means something completely different, "in the times of, in the generation of...".

I'm probably wrong then about the frequency of the two cases, but the gen. was used in Attic Greek for place. There are a number of examples in Liddell & Scott.

Thanks for your help! That clears a lot of things up. (Compared to Sanskrit, which I'm more familiar with, it looks like the Genitive must have taken over the job of the missing Locative and Ablative cases.)

No problem - you're right about the genitive taking over for the ablative, but in general it's the dative that does the job of the locative (and some dative endings in Greek correspond to Sanskrit locative endings -- the sing. -ι and plur. -σι endings of the 3rd declension if I remember correctly). The normal situation for prepositions that take all three oblique cases is for the accusative to be motion-to, the genitive motion-from, and the dative location-at. It's just the á¼￾πί does things a little differently.

[Bombichka]

I'm probably wrong then about the frequency of the two cases, but the gen. was used in Attic Greek for place. There are a number of examples in Liddell & Scott.

yes, you're right, there are some instances of epi + gen. for place listed in the LSJ, most of them taken from Xenophon.

but I think epi + dat. was a far more common way for expressing location in Attic.