[B-Greek] 2 Thess 2:15
James Ernest
j.d.ernest at bc.edu
Fri Dec 31 14:36:32 EST 2010
What Iver says seems right to me.
As for the article usually being dropped after DIA or other prepositions, a
quick search for DIA THS in the letters of Paul turns up quite a few hits.
One could dredge through them, comparing them with similar phrases without
the article. I haven't done that. I'll just point to the most pertinent hit
in the list: 2 Thess 3:14, EI DE TIS OUX hYPOKOUEI TW LOGW hHMWN DIA THS
EPISTOLHS, TOUTON SHMEIOUSTHE.
In 3:14, LOGOS and EPISTOLH are count nouns referring to a particular
utterance in a particular letter (NRSV says "in this letter," which seems
slightly non-obvious to me; I don't know what Marxsen and others make of
that--this letter or a previous letter?); in 2:15 (and in 2:2, which Iver
points out) both words are in effect mass nouns, referring not so much to a
particular utterance or a particular letter but to (possibly faked--the
concern expressed in 2:2 and 3:17) utterance-of-Paul or letter-of-Paul as
means of communication.
James Ernest
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list