Gal 4:28 EPAGGELIAS what type

Jason Lee jllee at mailcity.com
Fri May 28 02:24:10 EDT 1999


When the case by itself is not clear enough, or when it is not easily 
reduced to more concrete terms (I do not think, however, the idea of the 
genitive in Gal 4:28 is unclear), other functional words like adverbs and 
prepositions can come in to help out. In fact, classical grammarians like 
Smyth told us that was how prepositions came about, to resolve certain 
ambiguity (or to enhance a specific aspect) of the case notion. Not that 
preposition ‘governs' the case but ‘enhances' its flavor. It is correct to 
say that EPAGGELIAS TEKNA has the genitive flavor of source, description, 
characteristics, and kind, as it is clearly contrasted in Rom 9:8 TA TEKNA 
THS EPAGGELIAS (alluding to Isaac) versus TA TEKNA THS SAPKOS (alluding to 
Ishmael). But one can consider a bit more the context in Galatians and find 
the author's treatment (and thoughts) of the promise. In Gal 3:29 one finds 
KAT' EPAGGELIAN, ‘according to promise,' and in Gal 4:23 DI' EPAGGALIAS, 
‘through promise.' To bundle these connotations together, a genitive 
abstraction will work very well, thus EPAGGELIAS TEKNA. But notice how KATA 
and DIA are bundled in Gal 4:23 - KATA ISAAK EPAGGELIAS TEKNA ESTE 
‘according to Issac of promise children you are.' The placement of 
EPAGGELIAS in between ISAAK and TEKNA serves to link Isaac to the children 
through the promise (or vice versa). I think had the word order being KATA 
ISAAK TEKNA EPAGGELIAS ESTE or something else, the association will be a 
little less effective. As Isaac was born of the promise, so are you the 
children through grace under the covenant of promise (and not through the 
covenant of law according to the flesh). Promise is the 
source/characteristics of both Isaac and the children (the believers in 
Christ through grace). The word order of an inflected language can be quite 
pictorial, for another example see Acts 1:5.

Jason



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