Causal meaning of EIS in NT?

clayton stirling bartholomew c.s.bartholomew at worldnet.att.net
Mon Mar 20 17:28:28 EST 2000


on 03/20/00 5:51 AM, L. Tichy wrote:

> What do the B-Greekers think about the preposition EIS and its
> possible causal meaning in the New Testament Greek? There was some
> debate about the matter (pro and contra) at the beginning of the
> fifties in the Journal of Biblical Literature. There are some
> seemingly clear examples of a causal sense of EIS in the NT: e. g. not
> only EIS TI in Mt 14:31 and Mk 15:34, but also EIS TOUTO in Mk 1:38.
> But N. Turner in Moulton's Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol. III,
> p. 266s., is skeptical.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Ladislav Tichý
> Faculty of theology
> Palacký University
> Olomouc
> Czech Republic
> 
Edwards post on this prompted me to do some looking into the question. Louw
and Nida (89.48) have this to say about EIS & EN as a markers of causation:

*******
EIS & EN : markers of result, with the probable implication of a preceding
process ‹ Œwith the result that, so that as a result, to cause.¹

. . .snip. . .

 It would be possible to interpret EIS Š AGW in Ro 2:4 as being purely an
expression of cause since AGW  (see 36.1) also involves a component of
cause, and therefore one may interpret the expression EIS METNOIAN SE AGEI
as Œit causes you to repent.¹ In either case, however, EIS marks a resulting
event or state . . .
*******

This is not really a counter example since AGW may include the notion of
causation and EIS may simply (only) mark a resulting event or state. However
it is another aspect of this question worth looking at.

--  
Clayton Stirling Bartholomew
Three Tree Point
P.O. Box 255 Seahurst WA 98062





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