[B-Greek] Preposition example needed
bgreek at ntresources.com
bgreek at ntresources.com
Tue Sep 23 10:09:46 EDT 2003
Carl suggestion has been the most fruitful. Here are the best *parallel*
examples that I've found thus far. (They aren't perfect since the case
differs, but close enough until I find something better.) Using "faith" and
"Jesus"/"Christ"/"lord", I have two groups: one with only a case
relationship (genitive in each case here), the second describing the same
relationship but with a preposition (in this case, EN + dative).
Rom. 3:26, PISTEWS IHSOU
Phil. 3:9, PISTEWS CRISTOU
Rev. 14:12, TISTIN IHSOU
Gal. 3:26, EN CRISTWi IHSOU
Eph. 1:15, EN KURIWi IHSOU
Col. 1:4, EN CRISTWi IHSOU
For any beginners following this thread and trying to figure out what the
point is, here's my summary (& if I've misrepresented the classical > koine
usage patterns, I'd welcome any corrections from those of you who work with
classical more than I do):
It is worth noting that although there are relatively few prepositions
[i.e., in the NT], they occur very, very frequently in the NT. They occur
more frequently in koine Greek than in classical. As the koine emerged into
the wider world and began to be spoken widely by non-native speakers as the
lingua franca of the Greek (and later the Roman) empire, it became necessary
to be more explicit. Whereas in classical Greek various shades of meaning
and relationship could easily be expressed by use of a particular case
alone, this created a greater burden on those without the native intuition
of usage. Thus the number of prepositions is reduced, but those that remain
are used much more frequently to specify the nuance intended by a particular
case. In the following [in email version, "above"] examples, notice how the
preposition makes the statement more specific and less ambiguous than the
parallel statement without the preposition. Although context usually
clarifies, PISTEWS IHSOU could be read as either "faith of Jesus" (i.e., the
faith which Jesus exercises) or as "faith in Jesus" (i.e., faith which has
Jesus as its object).
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Rodney J. Decker, Th.D., Assoc. Professor/NT
Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, PA, USA
URL: www.NTResources.com
PURL: purl.oclc.org/NT_Resources/
Email: <rdecker> at <NTResources.com>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl W. Conrad
> [mailto:cwconrad.at.artsci.wustl.edu at bgreek.at.ntresources.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 4:16 PM
> To: bgreek at ntresources.com
> Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Preposition example needed
>
> Rod, have you tried PISTIS? I just did a search for PISTIS
> followed within 2 words by a preposition governing either
> genitive or accusative. In several instances the
> prepositional phrase doesn't really belong with PISTIS, but
> in many its does, most frequently it's PISTIS + EIS + acc. I
> don't know that I'd characterize any of the prepositional
> phrases with genitive as construing with PISTIS, however,
> except for Acts 3:16 hH PISTIS hH DI' AUTOU.
> --
>
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
> 1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
> cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
> WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
>
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