Luke 1:8

"His Service" = False.

The phrase ἐν τῷ ἱερατεύειν αὐτόν means "in ministering to him," not "his priestly service." The word αὐτόν is not showing possession (like "his"), but is the object of the action "to minister." The construction τῷ ἱερατεύειν turns the verb into a noun, and αὐτόν shows who is being ministered to. So, it’s about the action done to him, not something he owns. Every translation we've seen ignored (or was ignorant of) this Greek rule, and rendered it like a genitive.

In the construction ἐν τῷ ἱερατεύειν αὐτόν, the accusative αὐτόν cannot be interpreted as a possessive pronoun ("his"), as this would confuse the case function with that of the genitive, which expresses possession. Rather, αὐτόν serves as the object of the infinitive ἱερατεύειν (to minister), which requires an object of action, i.e., the one being ministered to. The articular infinitive τῷ ἱερατεύειν nominalizes the verb, and when adjuncts or dependent clauses are included, it forms a larger substantive idea (Smyth §§ 2034–2037). In this case, ἐν τῷ ἱερατεύειν αὐτόν should be understood as "in ministering to him," not "his priestly service" (Smyth §§ 2034–2037; BDAG s.v. αὐτός). Furthermore, the articular infinitive with adjuncts, such as in τὸ μὲν γὰρ πόλλ᾽ ἀπολωλεκέναι ("the fact that we have lost much"), indicates the formation of a substantive idea that is not merely possessive, but involves an action with its direct object (Smyth § 2037).

References

• Smyth, Herbert Weir. A Greek Grammar for Colleges. Revised by Gordon M. Messing, 4th ed., Harvard University Press, 1956. §§ 2034–2037.

• Danker, Frederick W., ed. Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, and Danker’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. University of Chicago Press, 2000. s.v. αὐτός.

The Substantive Clause

These "noun clauses" occur frequently in the NT. In Classical Greek, constructions like ἐν τῷ ἱερατεύειν αὐτόν exemplify the use of substantive clauses or nominalized infinitives, where the infinitive verb (e.g., ἱερατεύειν) functions as a noun. These constructions form a larger substantive idea, often with adjuncts or objects (like αὐτόν) to complete the meaning.

Relevant examples:

1. τὸ μὲν γὰρ πόλλ᾽ ἀπολωλεκέναι κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον ("the fact that we have lost much in the war") – Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On the Ancient Orators 1.10.

2. τὸ σπεύδειν δέ σοι παραινῶ ("I commend the hastening of yourself") – Sophocles, Philoctetes 620.

3. τὸ ἐρᾶν ἔξαρνος εἶ ("the eros-love you are refusing") – Plato, Lysis 205a.

4. ἐν τῷ ἱερατεύειν αὐτόν ("in the ministering to him") – This structure forms a substantive idea involving an action with a direct object (here αὐτόν, "him").

These examples illustrate how infinitive constructions can be used to express actions or concepts in a nominalized form, with the accusative case acting as the object of the infinitive, the genitive as the subject.