[B-Greek] Back to Eph. 2:8

Blue Meeksbay bluemeeksbay at yahoo.com
Sat May 14 13:22:50 EDT 2011


THi GAR CARITI ESTE SESWiSMENOI DIA PISTEWS  KAI TOUTO OUK EX hUMWN QEOU TO 
DWRON   Eph. 2:8
 
I was reading this morning a book by Fr. Theodore Bobosh about salvation and in 
referencing Eph. 2:8 he said we are saved* through* grace *by* faith.  I stopped 
and said to myself, *That is interesting. He switched *through* and *by.* 
 Through, gives a nuance of medium, while by, gives a nuance of basis.  This 
leads me to my question.  How should we understand the dative CARITI in 
relationship with the preposition DIA in Eph. 2:8?   Of course, DIA with the 
accusative carries the nuance of basis while DIA with the genitive carries the 
nuance of medium (at least in my mind) and in this verse we have the genitive. 
Does that help us decide if CARITI should be understood as a dative of means 
rather than a dative of cause? Is there anything in the structure that could 
help us decide? 

 
I suppose if we understood it as the dative of means, then grace would become 
the medium of God, and faith would become the medium of man in salvation. Does 
the fact that CARITI  is articular give us any indication which sense of the 
dative the writer is trying to communicate? It seems if it was anarthrous one 
would understand it to be more a dative of cause, whereas with the articular it 
would be more likely to be understood as the dative of means. 

       
On the other hand, the use of ENDEIXHTAI in verse 7 seems to indicate it should 
be understood as a dative of cause.
 
Is there anything in the construction and/or context that should direct the mind 
to one or the other?  


Blue Harris


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