[B-Greek] because vs since: DIA in Ro 3:25-26

Sarah Madden sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
Tue Oct 7 09:27:04 EDT 2008


Hi, Derek --

Since "because" means "since," why couldn't you  translate DIA with the
accusative as "since" instead of "because" in DIA THN PARESIN? Webster's has
this definition for "because":

"For the reason that: SINCE."

Sarah
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
Maryland

On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 2:47 PM, sharktacos <y_god_y at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 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.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
> thanks!
>
>
>
> Derek Floodwww.sharktacos.com/God/ <http://floodwww.sharktacos.com/God/>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
> B-Greek mailing list
> B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
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>



-- 
Sarah <><
sarah.r.madden at gmail.com
work: 301.429.8189


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