Thursday, December 21, 2017

Dative of Direct Object

Once written to an interlocutor:

On further research and reflection, I remember that there is what
grammarians call the dative of direct object that applies to certain
nouns. Still, I am not aware of an accusative of indirect object. But
there may be one! :-)

David A. Black discusses the dative of direct object on page 53 of
his It's Still Greek to Me. Two examples that Black cites are Mk 1:27
and Rom 7:25 (DOULEUW NOMWi QEOU).

Wallace has a section on the dative of direct object in GGBB, pp. 171-
173. Compare Heb 1:6: PROSKUNHSATWSAN AUTWi PANTES AGGELOI QEOU.

Richard Young shows which verbs take the dative case, although Wallace
suggests that we consult BDAG for a more accurate treatment of this
subject. At any rate, the verbs that take dative direct objects are
as follows, according to Young:

Verbs of worship
Verbs of service
Verbs of thanksgiving
Verbs of obedience and disobedience
Verbs of belief and unbelief
Verbs of rebuking
Verbs of helping
Verbs of pleasing
Verbs of following or meeting

More light on the subject, I think.

3 comments:

Philip Fletcher said...

Yes, with freewill involve, there is no 100% certainty, however if Jehovah wants to he can make a situation that causes a person to go in a certain direction. We humans can have success with this sometimes, Jehovah chooses to create situations that move a person only one way. He know that direction. But when he gives us a choice, and with most situations he does, freewill prevents 100% knowing.

Edgar Foster said...

Philip, you probably meant for this post to address another subject, but we concur that free will in the "libertarian" sense does not seem to allow for 100% certainty. I've seen others appeal to quantum mechanics as further evidence for indeterminate states of the cosmos.

Philip Fletcher said...

Yes, sorry about that, the previous post Genesis 22:12.