Life's Tree or Tree of Life?

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Jim_Baur

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Might some knowledgeable person address these questions?

Tree of Life or Life’s Tree?

Bread of Life or Life’s Bread?

Armor of Christ or Christ’s Armor?

Tree of Knowledge or Knowledge’s Tree?

Thanks!!!
 
Jim_Baur said:
Might some knowledgeable person address these questions?

Tree of Life or Life’s Tree?

Bread of Life or Life’s Bread?

Armor of Christ or Christ’s Armor?

Tree of Knowledge or Knowledge’s Tree?

Thanks!!!
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Why can you say “This is the shield of Agammemnon” but not “This is the pencil of John”?
 
I know tree of life is a proper translation.

I know armor of Christ is a proper translation.

I know bread of life is a proper translation.

Concerning the Hebrew and Greek (LXX), would it be proper grammar to say Life’s Tree?

Concerning the Greek, would it be proper to translate Christ’s armor?

Concerning the Greek, would it be proper to translate Life’s Bread?
 
You can translate this stuff either way. Both ways are correct. The job of the translator is to pick the one which sounds better and works better in the passage.

It’s a matter of Christian freedom – or in this case, linguistic freedom. 🙂
 
Jim_Baur said:
I know tree of life is a proper translation.

I know armor of Christ is a proper translation.

I know bread of life is a proper translation.

Concerning the Hebrew and Greek (LXX), would it be proper grammar to say Life’s Tree?

Concerning the Greek, would it be proper to translate Christ’s armor?

Concerning the Greek, would it be proper to translate Life’s Bread?
Click to expand...
It would be proper to say “the X of Y” in these cases. When we use the 's formation, we’re using the genitive case, which means that there is a person, place, or thing that possesses the other person, place, or thing, either literally, as in “John’s pencil” or figuratively, as in “Halifax’s harbour”. When we say “X of Y,” it’s either the genitive case, as in “The fourth floor of Simard Hall”, or the “of Y” clause is and adjectival adjunct to the X noun. Sorry for the linguistic jargon, but I need to put this degree to some good 🙂
So, this means that “of Y” is a property of “X”. When we say “Tree of Life”, we can know that there is something about this tree that grants life. Same deal for Tree of Knowledge and Bread of Life. There is something about the tree and the bread that grants knowledge and life, respectively.
“Armour of Christ” does not imply that Christ is a property of the armour, but it is clear that Christ does not possess the armour. I can’t remember the syntactic category this falls in.
 
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