Galatians 2:1

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Nov 17 07:50:21 EST 2001


At 12:33 PM +0000 11/17/01, Keith Thompson wrote:
>Hi!
>  Galatians 2:1...
>EPEITA DIA DEKATESSARWN ETWN PALIN ANEBHN EIS hIEROSOLUMA META BARNABA,
>SUMPARALABWN KAI TITON.
>  I wouldn't have a problem with this, but all of the translations I've
>seen except one (I've only got five) translate 'DIA DEKATESSARWN ETWN'
>as 'after fourteen years'. Can DIA+genitive have a meaning 'after' (I
>would expect META+accusative)?
>  Doesn't it rather indicate the time during which the action took place,
>probably repeatedly?

No; this is an idiomatic usage. Here's what L&N say:

67.59 DI' hHMERWN: (an idiom, literally 'through days') a point of time
subsequent to another point of time after an interval of a few days - 'a
few days later.' EISELQWN PALIN EIS KAFARNAOUM DI' hHMERWN 'a few days
later he came back to Capernaum' Mk 2:1.

67.60 DI' ETWN: (an idiom, literally 'through years') a point of time
subsequent to another point of time after an interval of some years - 'some
years later.' DI' ETWN DE PLEIONWN ELEHMOSUNAS POIHSWN EIS TO EQNOS MOU
PAREGENOMHN KAI PROSFORAS 'after a number of years I went to take some
money to my own people and to make offerings' Ac 24:17.

and LSJ s.v. DIA:

...
II. of Time, ...
2. of the interval which has passed between two points of Time, d. chronou
pollou or d. pollou chr. after a long time, Id.3.27, Ar.Pl.1045; d. makrôn
chronôn Pl.Ti.22d : without an Adj., d. chronou after a time, S.Ph.758,
X.Cyr.1.4.28, etc.; di' hêmerôn after several days, Ev.Marc.2.1; and with
Adjs. alone, di' oligou Th.5.14 ; ou d. makrou Id.6.15 ,91; d. pollou
Luc.Nigr.2 , etc.: with Numerals, di' eteôn eikosi Hdt.6.118 , cf. OGI56.38
(iii B. C.), etc.: but d. tês hebdomês till the seventh day,
Luc.Hist.Conscr.21: also distributively, chronos d. chronou proubaine time
after time, S.Ph.285; allos di' allou E.Andr.1248 .
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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