[B-Greek] 2 Tim 1:3 APO
virgil newkirk
virgilsalvage1 at msn.com
Mon Mar 6 01:11:36 EST 2006
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mitch Larramore" <mitchlarramore at yahoo.com>
To: "B Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 6:24 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] 2 Tim 1:3 APO
> CARIN ECW TWi QEWi, hWi LATREUW APO PROGONWN EN
> KAQARAi SUNEIDHSEI...
>
>
> What does this phrase As long as
his audience keep the faith and mature in it, it will not have been in vain.
Then he can rejoice together with them as
the next verse says.
modify? And how
> would it be translated? It appears on the surface to
> be something like "from (my) parents/forefathers." Is
> there some temporal element with this phrase, as in
> "from the time of..."?
>
> Mitch Larramore
> Sugar Land, Texas
Dear Mitch,
Since most prepositional phrases are adverbial in nature, APO PROGONWN
surely modifies, that is, helps complete and give description to the thought
of:
LATREUW; which is in the main...some kind of actual sacred service. It was
helpful to me to read every instance of LATREUW in the New Testament where
one sees that it points to service of some kind. Service has at it's very
core:
requirements, elements, expectations of the one served, and many other
considerations. Sacred service does not have, as it's source, the whim of
the individual. The requirements and considerations come from the one
served. Just a couple of examples:
Deuteronomy 12:3-5 You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred
pillars, burn up their sacred Asherah poles, and cut down the images of
their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place. You must
not worship the Lord your God the way they worship, but you must seek only
the place he chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place
of residence, and you must go there !
And Jeremiah 48:35 I will put an end in Moab to those who make offerings at
her places of worship. I will put an end to those who sacrifice to other
gods. I, the Lord, affirm it. NET
Mitch,
Concerning APO PROGONWN..
You asked concerning APO PROGONWN:
And how
would it be translated? It appears on the surface to
be something like "from (my) parents/forefathers."
I would suggest the thing that is on the surface is that this is a phrase in
the genitive case which, unlike something in the dative or accusative case;
is not necessarily "that" very thing, but sometimes is something
characterized by that which has been added (in some real way) to it. A.T.
Robertson in his Greek Grammar on page 493 speaking of the genitive case
says of the genitive case:
" It is the specifying case, then, the case of appurtenance (something
having been added to.)"
In consideration of LATREUW being modified or further explained by APO
PROGONWN we could translate it something like:
.whom I am rendering service to "with" what is from what we know is
characterized by the ones who were before (the fathers.)
I don't think it has so much to do with the temporal, Mitch, as much as it
has to do with what was the proper content of the fathers (that which they
were characterized by) which was in shadow for what we now have in reality.
In this short phrase is a world of meaning that connects us to service to
God that has it's roots in what God did in the past in the fathers in such a
way that Paul can say that characterizes his service.
Paul serves with what is from, what is characterized by, or by what is "of"
the fathers.
Paul's inward conscience is at peace that this is so.
We, being this far away from what that was (all the fathers Paul is
referring to), requires some careful consideration to discover what he meant
by LATREUW APO PROGONWN. It is (in my estimation) a genitive cased picture
worth a thousand words !
Virgil Newkirk
Salt Lake City, Utah
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