[B-Greek] because vs since: DIA in Ro 3:25-26
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Oct 6 19:40:18 EDT 2008
Welcome, Derek. A word regarding the procedure here. When a question regarding a passage is posted, it is customary to quote the passage. I will give your passage in both Greek and transliterated Greek (the equivalences are on the group's website -- NOTE: My transliteration is slightly idiosyncratic since I exchange the X and C). If you post a passage in Greek it customary to also transliterate it since not all can read the Greek characters (perhaps some day). If you can't post the Greek a transliteration by itself is acceptable. This will allow the reader to be certain that you are both referencing the same passage (It has been known for a poster to list the wrong passage). Don't take this as correction but as information since, as a new member, you may not be acqainted with the group's procedures.
25ὃν προέθετο ὁ θεὸς ἱλαστήριον διὰ [τῆς]πίστεως ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ αἵματι εἰς ἔνδειξιν τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ διὰ τὴν πάρεσιν τῶν προγεγονότων ἁμαρτημάτων 26ἐν τῇ ἀνοχῇ τοῦ θεοῦ, πρὸς τὴν ἔνδειξιν τῆς δικαιοσύνης αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ νῦν καιρῷ, εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν δίκαιον καὶ δικαιοῦντα τὸν ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ.
.
25 hON PROEQETO hO QEOS hILATHRION DIA [THS] PISTEWS EN TWi AUTOU hAIMATI EIS hENDEICIN THS DIKAIOSUNHS AUTOU DIA THN PARESIN TWN PROGEGONOTWN hAMARTHMATWN 26 EN THi ANOXHi TOU QEOU, PROS THN hENDEICIN THS DIKAIOSUNHS AUTOU EN TWi NUN KAIRWi, EIS TO EINAI AUTON DIKAION KAI DIKAIOUNTA TON EK PISTEWS IHSOU.
.
DIA is used with two cases: Genitive and Accusative. Both are in evidence here. I am guessing that you don't have BDAG [Bauer, Danker, Arndt & Gingrich, _A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature_]. This is the sine qua non for any serious study of the New Testament. If you don't have it, go, sell your first-born child and buy it. It is truly a pearl of great price. Don't rely on glosses [one word definitions to be used as substitutes for the Greek word]. Read through the various uses given and look at the examples cited [Boy, is this ever going to take a lot of time]. You will soon get a feel for the usage of the words. I will cite the main entries for the use of DIA with the accusative
.
1. Marker of extension through an area: "through"
2. Marker of something constituting cause: "because of", "for the sake of"
DIA TI: "Why?"
3. Instead of DIA with gen.: "by"
.george
gfsomsel
… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.
- Jan Hus
_________
----- Original Message ----
From: sharktacos <y_god_y at yahoo.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Monday, October 6, 2008 2:47:23 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] because vs since: DIA in Ro 3:25-26
Hi
everyone, this is my first post to the list. My name is Derek, and I am a
grad student at GTU. I've only had first year Greek so I
am a novice here. I am hoping to benefit from all of your collective
knowledge!
I've been translating Romans 3:25-26 from the Greek
and have an alternate translation of the Greek preposition διὰ [DIA] I wanted to run by you:
RSV reads:
“...God put [Jesus Christ] forward as an expiation by his blood, to
be received by faith. This was to
show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had
passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he
himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in
Jesus.”
The
part I am interested in is “This was to show God's righteousness,
because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
The preposition translated as "because" here in Greek is διὰ [DIA]. Normally
the preposition διὰ [DIA] with the accusative translates as “because of” as it is here
in the RSV. But that results in the rather awkward sentence “This
was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
My
question here is with my interpretation of the word διὰ [DIA] as
meaning here “accounting for” God's passing over sin, as opposed to God
showing
his righteousness “though” passing over sin. It may be that the RSV translation of "because of" is intended
to mean this, but it is such an odd
formulation in English that it is hard for me to tell the translators intent here.
Could διὰ
[DIA] be
translated as “since” or “accounting for” here? So if we break down the sentence into parts it becomes:
I'd like to avoid
getting into exegesis here since it is outside of the scope of
this list, so what I am really curious about is simply whether διὰ
[DIA] can
legitimately be translated as I am here as "since" rather than as
"because"? And while I am at it, what about translating it as "in"
which looses the meaning of that specific word, but produces a more
natural sounding sentence in English?: "This was in order to demonstrate God's righteousness in overlooking the previous sins"
The impression I am getting as I look at many prepositions
is that they are often used in a way that we would not in English so
that a literal translation sounds unnatural in English. I'd appreciate your thoughts.
thanks!
Derek Floodwww.sharktacos.com/God/
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