In common English, "possession" refers to having something, or to something that a person has. In English that grammatical relationship is shown with <u>of</u>, or an apostrophe and the letter <u>s</u>, or a possessive pronoun.
**Ownership** - In the example below, the son owned the money.
>… the younger son … wasted <u>his money</u> with wildly extravagant living. (Luke 15:13)
**Social Relationship** - In the example below, the disciples were people who learned from John.
>Then <u>the disciples of John</u> came to him …, (Matthew 9:14 ULB)
**Material** - In the example below, the material used for making the crowns was gold.
>On their heads were something like <u>crowns of gold</u> (Revelation 9:7)
**Contents** - In the example below, the cup has water in it.
>Whoever gives you <u>a cup of water</u> to drink … will not lose his reward. (Mark 9:41 ULB)
**Part of a whole** - In the example below, the door was a part of the palace.
>But Uriah slept at <u>the door of the king's palace</u> (2 Samuel 11:9 ULB)
**Part of a group** - In the example below, "us" refers to the whole group and "each one" refers to the individual members.
>To <u>each one of us</u> has been given a gift (Ephesians 4:7 ULB)
#### Events and Possession
Sometimes one or both of the nouns is an abstract noun that refers to an event or action. In the examples below, the abstract nouns are in **bold** print. These are just some of the relationships that are possible between two nouns when one of them refers to an event.
**Subject** - Sometimes the word after "of" tells who would do the action named by the first noun. In the example below, <u>John baptized people</u>.
>The <u>**baptism** of John</u>, was it from heaven or from men? Answer me." (Mark 11:30)
In the example below, <u>Christ loves us</u>.
>Who will separate us from <u>the **love** of Christ</u>? (Romans 3:35)
**Object** - Sometimes the word after "of" tells who or what something would happen to. In the example below, <u>people love money</u>.
>For <u>the **love** of money</u> is a root of all kinds of evil. (1 Timothy 6:10 ULB)
**Instrument** - Sometimes the word after "of" tells how something would happen. In the example below, God would <u>punish people by sending enemies to attack them with swords</u>.
> then be afraid of the sword, because wrath brings <u>the **punishment** of the sword</u> (Job 19:29 ULB)
**Representation** - In the example below, John was baptizing people who were repenting of their sins. They were being baptized to show that they were repenting. Their <u>baptism represented their repentance</u>.
>As John came, he was baptizing in the wilderness and was preaching <u>a **baptism** of repentance</u> for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:4 ULB)
### Strategies for learning what the relationship is between the two nouns
If possession would be a natural way to show a particular relationship between two nouns, consider using it. If it would be strange or hard to understand, consider these.
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