[B-Greek] woman's veil ANTI

Dave Reigle dlrgrk at paonline.com
Tue Jun 22 03:24:55 EDT 2004


I will try and clear up some of the simple things, I will let the
difficult things to my betters.:)

First, ANTI is a preposition which takes a genitive case.  When looking
for the meaning of any Greek word, a good lexicon can help get you
started in the right direction.  I am quoting from "a Greek English
lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature" by
Bauer, Arndt, and Gingrich, second edition.  (The third is better but I
don't have it yet)
First he gives the original meaning as opposite.  Then he suggests three
figurative meanings: 
1. In order to indicate that one person or thing is or is to be replaced
by another, instead of, in place of.
2.  In order to indicate that one thing is equivalent to another.  For,
as, in place of.
3.  Gen 44:33  shows how the meaning in place of can develop into in
behalf,for.

I've just given you the major section headers to give you the idea of
what he says.  By the way he references your verse in Corinthians under
the second meaning.  Of course that is not necessarily correct, but it
lets you know what he felt the truth was.
I now want to reply to statement I snipped below:

Snip>The fact that our English word anti which means opposition as in
antigovernment, is believed to derive from the Greek word ANTI, very
much also indicates that ANTI normally pertains to opposition and
disagreement.  Although I have found ANTI to mostly mean opposition,
exchange and replacement, yet I also found a few verses where "ANTI" is
used as a prefix in Greek words meaning alikeness>snip

This is not a valid argument.  The fact that we English a Greek word in
a certain way doesn't tell us much about the range of use of the Greek
word.  After all, the Greeks had no idea how we were going to use the
word, so it couldn't influence how the word was used then.
I'd also like to respond to another statement:

Snip>It appears this is done in the context of speaking of something
being made against another thing as being made against and from that
pattern.  Hebrews 9:24 and 1 Peter 3:21 use the word ANTITUPA(ON), which
word means a copy or figure of another thing.  The Septuagint Apocrypha
similarly uses the word ANTIGRAF* in speaking of a copy of a
writing.>snip
It pays to be careful here, prepositions used in composition with other
words don't always bring the same meaning to the word as you might
expect if the preposition was used by itself. Pick up a good grammar and
check how prepositions are used in this way. 

I've only responded to some of your questions, but I hope my input will
be helpful.  If I have misinformed you, I trust others on the list will
provide corrections.  Good luck in your search and study.

David Reigle
Elizabethtown, PA

Amos Bender




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