[B-Greek] Galatians 1.1 - APO and DIA

George F. Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Tue Aug 24 02:37:30 EDT 2004


On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 19:44:41 -0600 "Joel Barnes" <joel at barnzee.ca>
writes:
> Dear Everyone,
>  
> Since I am a lurker on this list for the most part, here is a brief 
> bio
> prior to my question: My education is in the field of exercise 
> physiology.
> Due to my interest in Greek, however, I managed to sneak a year of 
> Ancient
> Greek into my undergraduate coursework. Since then, I have focused 
> on Koine
> Greek during my spare time as it relates to the New Testament 
> corpus.
>  
> ***
>  
> Galatians 1.1 reads as follows in UBS (4th Revised Edition): PAULOS
> APOSTOLOS OUK AP ANQRWPWN OUDE DI ANQRWPOU ALLA DIA IHSOU CRISTOU 
> KAI QEOU
> PATROS TOU EGEIRANTOS AUTON EK NEKRWN,
>  
> The commentaries I have access to state that AP ANQRWPWN refers to 
> source
> (appointment) whereas DI ANQRWPOU refers to agency (commission) 
> (e.g. R.
> Alan Cole, Tyndale New Testament Commentary on Galatians). This 
> makes sense
> to me; however, here is my question: Where is the corresponding 
> "symmetry"
> when the apostle Paul turns from his double negation to his 
> affirmation?
> Stated another way, why does he only use DIA when stating his 
> apostolate
> positively, if said nuance exists when Paul uses not only DIA but 
> APO to
> deny both human source and agency for his apostolate?
>  
> Any help would be appreciated.
>  
> Kind regards,
>  
> Joel
>  
>  
> --

Joel,

I suspect that what we have here is a sort of anacoluthon.  Perhaps, more
correctly, he should have written

APOSTOLOS OUK AP' ANQRWPWN OUDE DI ANQRWPOU ALLA DIA IHSOU CRISTOU KAI
[APO] QEOU PATROS TOU EGEIRANTOS AUTON EK NEKRWN,

but, we sometimes leave things to be understood -- particularly when they
seem obvious to us.

george
gfsomsel



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