[B-Greek] Fw: OFFLIST RE: [b-trans] Re: 2 Tim 1:3, 2 Tim 3:15 "apo"

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Feb 11 16:20:55 EST 2003


At 7:33 AM +1100 2/12/03, Ann Nyland wrote:
>I have had a bit of discussion with someone about the following verses, and
>thought it easier to reproduce their point of view in question form below
>for comment.
>Thanks!
>Ann Nyland
>
>hWi LATREUW APO PROGONWN EN KAQARAi SUNEIDHSEI
>Is it grammatically possible for 2 Tim 1:3a to read: "I thank God, whom I
>serve apart from [ie: alienated from] my forefathers..."?

No, I don't think so; APO is not equivalent to CWRIS or CWRISQEIS; with
some qualifying participle or adjective, it might be possible to get that
sense from APO, but I can't see how "alienated from" can be read out of APO
+ genitive alone.

>KAI hOTI APO BREFOUS
>Question #2:
>Is it grammatically possible for 2 Tim 3:15a to read:
>"And [far] from [being] a baby..."?

No, surely not. This is a pretty standard expression, as would EK +
genitive of a similar word be, for "since I was an infant."

This is an instance where I would recommend a close reading and pondering
of the implications of the lengthy entry in BDAG for APO; while there are
quite a few idiomatic expressions involving use of APO + genitive, they all
fall into intelligible patterns and derivation from a standard meaning.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/


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