Galatians 2:1

Steven Lo Vullo doulos at merr.com
Sun Nov 18 14:47:26 EST 2001



On Sunday, November 18, 2001, at 08:22  AM, Carl W. Conrad 
wrote:Actually the META + accusative is closer to the literal English 
"after ...".

> It occurred to me after dispatching the message yesterday that I should
> have added a note such as I did when this came up one other time: the 
> DIA +
> genitive construction is closer to the English sort of expression, 
> "I'll be
> back in a week" or "I'll be back in seven days"; German has something 
> like
> "heute in acht Tagen"--all of which expressions indicate or imply an
> interval of time preceding the anticipated action; they may or may not
> indicate both terminals but there's an implicit interval between two
> points, after which the action will or has taken place.

It makes good sense that Paul would use DIA + genitive rather than 
META + accusative, since Paul is going to great pains in the context to 
maintain his independence from the Jerusalem apostles. DIA + genitive 
makes plain he was not in Jerusalem throughout the whole span of 
fourteen years, whereas META + accusative would not necessarily indicate 
that he had not been there at some preceding point during the fourteen 
years. In the case of 1.18, he can use META + accusative since he has 
already made plain in v. 17 what he DIDN'T do.
----------------------

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




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