Galatians (various)

Mike Sangrey mike at sojurn.lns.pa.us
Tue Jun 13 14:28:50 EDT 2000



parousia_occ at yahoo.com said:
> 2.  In the second chapter (verse 1) it says EPEITA DIA DEKATESSARWN
> ETWN.   I wonder about the use of DIA.  I have not seen it used before
> as "after...  years/days/hours/etc."  Is this just a use I have
> overlooked?  Or could it  be a use of variation because he had just
> used EPEITA META ETH TRIA  (1.18)? 

If you check the archives, around 28 Sep 1999, you will find this very
question discussed.  FWIW, I said:

Mike Sangrey <mike at sojurn.lns.pa.us> said:
> The accusative brings out the notion of 'extent'. I see Paul standing
> before an audience and as he speaks, I picture him raising his right
> hand in the air as if he is holding a grapefruit sized ball--"this
> three year span."  I think of META with the accusative in this way.
> That's the first picture.  There is not a strong emphasis on the time,
> but, at least there is 3 years to account for.

> However, the second phrase is in the genitive.  This case would bring
> emphasis to the 'kind of thing'--this was a 14-year kind of span. And
> DIA brings emphasis to a 'through' or 'spanning' idea.  So I picture
> Paul, hands raised, index fingers extended, touching and to his left.
> He pulls his right hand away from his left as he says, "fourteen year
> span."  In other words, he is getting his readers to focus on the span
> itself and not just the extent of the time. By this he strongly
> emphasizes the length of time.  The fact that he contrasts (and I
> think of this as contrast and not that the one time segment is within
> the other) META with DIA appears to me to add additional emphasis to
> that time span. 

Different people will differ and the others may very well may be right.
:-)

Some will say, there's no big difference here; think of them as
interchangeable.  Others, myself included, will relish the beautiful
precision of the Greek.  

-- 
Mike Sangrey
mike at sojurn.lns.pa.us
Landisburg, Pa.
       Every Christian library should have a plaque which states:
            "There is one book that explains all of these."





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