What I Learned from a Lesson on Genitive Constructs

Please, don't skip this post because you have no idea what the title means. Please?

And, if you know more about Hebrew than I do and I make a mistake, please let me know in the comment section!

So, on Friday in Introduction to Biblical Languages, Dr. Chou was teaching us about the basics of grammar, focusing specifically on constructs. The kinds we covered were subjective, objective, possessive, source, product, descriptive, and partitive. Now, I forget which case he was talking about (my best shot in the dark is possessive, because that seems to make the most logical sense), but he was talking about how sometimes instead of translating the construct into an "of" phrase they will sometimes be translated into "my" phrases. For instance, the difference between "the blood of my Redeemer" (awkward in English) and "my Redeemer's blood." The Redeemer Himself owns the blood, but He is our Redeemer, so in some sense, His blood is also ours. The possessives in this case do not mean that we dominate over them; rather, we are subject to them.

I know I'm probably not explaining this very well, but the light bulb went on for me when I started taking this Hebrew grammatical context and applying it to modern worship songs. Some people take issue with all the possessive singular pronouns used in contemporary music. I do sometimes if the possessive singular pronouns are used in ways that lend themselves to poor theology, but thinking about some of these "shallow" songs in light of Hebrew grammar really changed my thinking.

For instance, think of Psalm 62. The chorus goes like this:

Oh, praise Him! Hallelujah, my Delight and my Reward.

Everlasting, never failing, my Redeemer, my God.

This could be perceived to be a shall0w, self-centered song if these lines were taken out of context. (Listen to the whole song. Right now. Just do it. It's amazing. I even linked to it above, so you have no excuse.) BUT, when taken in context, and when understood properly, they are beautiful.

Think about it this way. Aaron Keyes is not saying, "God is all mine! My own, my precious!" like some kind of Christianized Gollum. His words are words of Yahweh-worship, not self-praise! He isn't saying, "Oh, I'm so wonderful that God rewards me with Himself!" He is saying, "God, You have made me Your child, and because of that, You reward me with Yourself. That is why I say hallelujah!" But songs can't communicate everything we need or want them too. They must be lacking on some areas, or they'd be theology texts instead of songs. So, this is what the expanded version of the song goes like in my head.

Oh, praise Him! Hallelujah! You are the delight and reward promised to me!
Everlasting, never failing, You redeem my sins, so You are Lord over me!

So, next time you see an "of" phrase or a "my" phrase... think about genitive constructs. Think especially deeply about the possessive ones and how they humble us in light of God's greatness, goodness, and superiority to us, His creatures.

From the dust of the Rabbi,

~Camille

P.S. I apologise if this made no sense to anyone who has not taken any Hebrew. I tried to make it clear... but I'm still wrapping my mind around it myself.