[B-Greek] Help with Prepositions

Joseph Weaks j.weaks at tcu.edu
Wed Aug 4 01:34:42 EDT 2004


On Aug 3, 2004, at 11:04 PM, Tony Costa wrote:
> Jimmy you may want to go to
> http://www.biblicalgreek.org/grammar/images/peurifoyprepchartb.pdf 
> where you
> can find a chart on prepositions that may prove helpful.
>
>> Hi besides brute memory work does anyone have any helps with learning
>> Prepositions in first year Greek. They are causing me the most 
>> difficulty.

These kinds of charts/pictures are swell for explaining a root meaning 
of those prepositions, but they don't serve much purpose in actually 
memorizing the different words.  Prepositions is a place where many 
English cognates can really give you the clue to remembering a base 
meaning of most preps. Then you have to simply memorize the 
accompanying meaning with a second (or third) case.

Here are some examples I can think of... not definitions, mind you, but 
rather associated English words that might help you recall a base 
meaning of the preposition.
(Remember that Greek Upsilon is usually anglicized into a Y and a rough 
breather is an H, and in rare cases, an S)

hUPER - hyper, hyperactive, super
hUPO - hypodermic
DIA - diameter
PERI - perimeter
EN - in
EK/EX - Exodus (= EK + ODOS = way out), exegesis (meaning comes out of 
the text)
EIS - eisogesis (put meaning upon a text or read the meaning into the 
text... ok, this is lame, I know)
PARA - parallel
PRO - prologue (as in foreword)
SUN - synthesis
META - metaphor (something illuminated when seen with another reference)
ANTI - antithesis

Well, that's all I think of at the moment. My books are not available 
to me. Machen did a good job of listing English derivatives. Someone 
else might want to add to/correct this list.

Joe

**************************************************************
Rev. Joseph A. Weaks
Senior Minister, Bethany Christian Church, Dallas
Ph.D. (Cand.), Brite Divinity School, Ft. Worth
j.weaks at tcu.edu
**************************************************************




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