[B-Greek] Comparison of EIS with PROS
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Jan 14 17:21:19 EST 2004
At 4:46 PM -0500 1/14/04, <dhoxworth at charter.net> wrote:
>i'm looking for information on the distinction between the prepositions
>EIS and PROS. i understand that AT Robertson has a good treatment of it in
>his "A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in Light of Historical Research"
>on pages 591-596.
>
>could someone give me further information about this and perhaps even
>quote the relevant section from his grammar (seeing that i don't have it)?
>thanks!
I won't try to cite the whole of that section (the six pages), but section
7 of the discussion of PROS reads as follows:
"7. Compared with EPI, PARA, and PROS: The growth in the use of EIS is
shown by its appearance where EPI or PROS would be expected in the older
Greek. Cf. ERCETAI EIS POLIN (John 4:5) where the point is not 'into' but
'to.' So 11:31 hUPAGEI EIS TO MNHMEION. In 11:38 D has EPI, not EIS. So in
Mk 3:7 ANECWRHSAN PROS THN QALASSAN, DHP have EIS. Cf. Mk 2:13, aleph has
EIS for PARA and in 7:31 alephBD have EIS, not PROS."
I would add that originally PROS, PRO and PARA all derived from the same
root meaning "facing" or "in front of." EIS was originally EN-S, a form of
EN used with accusative case. The distinction between PROS and EIS in older
Greek was much clearer, PROS meaning "toward" and EIS meaning "into/onto,"
i.e. PROS expressed the notion of vicinity/nearness, EIS the notion of
penetration. EIS tended with the development of the language to become more
and more the carrier of the notion "to," such that in later and Modern
Greek we have the forms STHN (STIN), STON functioning with feminine and
masculine nouns almost as if it were itself a preposition.
--
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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