[B-Greek] PRWTOS vs. PROTEROS

Robert Creech rrcreech at swbell.net
Fri Apr 11 11:47:35 EDT 2003


Sir William Ramsay makes the point on more than one occasion that when the word PRWTOS is used, it means the first among many - examples are Luke 2:2, "This was the first census (among the many that came later) that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria." and Acts 1:1 "In my first book" - i.e., implying that Luke expected to write volume 3?  Now, Ramsay is quite adamant that PRWTOS means this, as opposed to PROTEROS.

 

Now, BAG is just as adamant that PRWTOS need not imply first among many.  Liddell and Scott does not make a strong distinction.

 

 

 

 


I often think: "A life is like a day; it goes by so fast. If I am so careless with my days, how can I be careful with my life?" I know that somehow I have not fully come to believe that urgent things can wait while I attend to what is truly important. It finally boils down to a question of deep and strong conviction. Once I am truly convinced that preparing the heart is more important than preparing the Christmas tree I will be a lot less frustrated at the end of a day.

Henri J. M. Nouwen


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