Re: Gal. 1:1, 3-Any Significance in One Preposition?

From: Trevor M Peterson (spedrson@juno.com)
Date: Mon Dec 28 1998 - 22:12:11 EST


On Mon, 28 Dec 1998 15:47:11 -0800 (PST) Edgar Foster
<questioning1@yahoo.com> writes:
>Dear B-Greekers,
>
>Gal. 1:1, 3 reads in part:
>
>ALLA DIA IHSOU XRISTOU KAI QEOU PATROS . . . XARIS hUMIN KAI EIRHNH
>APO QEOU PATROS KAI KURIOU hHMWN IHSOU XRISTOU.
>
>In both verses of this Pauline Epistle, there is one preposition
>governing two substantives. Is this structure very common in the NT?
>If so, is there any significance in this syntactical arrangement?

I can't comment right now on how common it is, but I did a little
investigation into this sort of construction in John 3:5. L. Belleville,
ãÎBorn of Water and Spirit:â John 3:5,ä Trinity Journal 1 (1980) 131,
alludes to a difficulty in the physiological view based on the
construction of EN hUDATOS KAI PNEUMATOS as a preposition followed by two
anarthrous nouns, linked by the conjunction KAI. R. Summers, ãBorn of
Water and Spirit,ä The Teacherâs Yoke: Studies in Memory of Henry
Trantham (ed. E. J. Vardaman and J. L. Garrett; Waco: Baylor University
Press, 1964) 125-26, suggests Titus 3:5 as a parallel construction, where
the preposition is DIA and the washing and renewing ministries of the
Spirit are tied together in the one act which produces salvation. A. T.
Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of
Historical Research (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1934) 566, sees some
flexibility in the Koine, yet he seems to affirm that the preposition
would generally be repeated if the two nouns could not be categorized
together.

The conclusion I drew is that it is at least possible to infer a closer
association with a shared preposition than without, but I don't know of
any extensive evidence to that effect. I personally chose not to use
that notion as anything more than potential corroborative evidence of
what I concluded from other factors.

I don't know how helpful all of this is, but it's all I have at this
point.

Trevor Peterson
Bible/Theology Department
Washington Bible College
Lanham, MD

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