[B-Greek] "episemoi en tois apostolois"

AwenDawn AwenDawn at ap.net
Sat Aug 28 07:34:53 EDT 2004


Hello I am new here, please excuse any inappropriate discussion on my part and kindly let me know.
I do not understand understand how the NET Bible 's  first choice of translation of "en" is to rather than among? Romans 16:7. Sincerely, Awen









 Aida Besancon Spencer, makes the grammatical point that "the Greek preposition en which is used here always has the idea of 'within.'"(1) Greek text books point out that en followed by the dative normally means "in, on or among." For example, en tois is translated as "among those" (1 Cor 2:6), and en tois ethnesin as "among the Gentiles" (Acts 15:12, 1 Cor 5:1, Gal 2:2, Col 1:27, 1 Pet 2:12). Where en tois is followed by a plural noun referring to a group of people, the word en is translated as "among."  Liddel-Scott defines the Greek word episemoi as "having a mark on" it.(2) meaning they were not just notable but that they were outstanding among the apostles.





(1)  Aida Besancon Spencer, Beyond the Curse, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1985), 104. 

(2)  Liddel-Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, 7th ed. (Hiawatha, Iowa: Parsons Technology, Inc., 1997), electronic edition. 


I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12 



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