The use of the preposition kata in Romans 16:5
Mark Wilson
emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Tue Mar 6 10:25:27 EST 2001
>From: "Manfred Roth"
>I'd like to know why the phrase: "...kai thn kat oikon autwn ekklhsian" in
>Romans 16:5 is always translated as: "...the church that is in their
>house"
>As far as I know the preposition 'kata' doesn't mean 'in' but 'according
>to' or 'down from';
------
I think KATA is quite capable of a variety of nuances. KATA with Accusative
often means REFERENCE.
With reference to those assembling at their house, greet them.
Could Distributive work here as well?
Wallace says of the Distributive: "indicating the division of a greater
whole into individual parts." This sounds like an option since in Rome
there would have been believers meeting at many houses. For example, suppose
believers met in a total of 40 to 50 houses, since you can only fit so many
in one house. This house-church was simply one of the many.
As a side note, during the week believers met regularly in house-churches
(as frequent as daily). On Sunday mornings, before the sun came up (so
tradition says), many of those who met at various house-churches assembled
together for a special Sunday service. I think KATA may speak to this in
some way. (The first century churches seem quite different to me than in our
churches of the Western world.)
My thoughts,
Mark Wilson
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