[B-Greek] ARCHES KITSEOS in Mark 10:6 and 2 Pet. 3:4
David Opderbeck
dopderbeck at gmail.com
Fri Jan 19 18:06:33 EST 2007
I'm an absolute beginner at learning Greek and was having a conversation
with someone about a phrase in Mark 10:6 and 2 Pet. 3:4.
The Greek formulation is exactly the same in Mark 10 and 2 Peter -- arches
kitseos -- kistseos and arches being in the genitive, and both pasages
include the preposition apo ("from"). Interestingly, the NIV translates the
phrase in Mark 10 as "*at *the beginining of creation" and in 2 Peter
as "*since
*the beginning of creation." As far as I can tell, this difference would be
based on context, not on grammar. Is that right?
"At" sounds much more specific than "since" or "from," which also could be a
meaing of apo. "From the beginning" sounds more general and idiomatic than
"at the beginning," which sounds more precise. Given that the speakers of
this phrase in 2 Peter are the scoffers, this seems to suggest that this
"from / since the beginning" phrase is perhaps idiomatic -- like we might
say, "it's always been this way." In 2 Peter, the scoffers are making a
general idiomatic reference to their (false) belief that human affairs will
never be interrupted by Christ's return, and in Mark 10, Jesus is making a
general idiomatic reference to life-long committment in marriage as part of
the created order. Neither is a specific reference to the order, nature,
etc. of how God acted in bringing about creation.
Does that sound like a reasonable approach to the Greek text here?
--
David W. Opderbeck
Web: http://www.davidopderbeck.com
Blog: http://www.davidopderbeck.com/throughaglass.html
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