[B-Greek] hUPER w. acc. as location above/over - or not?

Eric S. Weiss papaweiss1 at yahoo.com
Thu Mar 10 09:53:01 EST 2011


I had been taught (and have myself taught) that hUPER with the accusative case 
means "over/above" - i.e., the opposite of hUPO with the accusative case. 

Indeed, Metzger's chart in his Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek 
p. 80 - Table II Geometric Arrangement of the Greek Prepositions - shows 
hUPER w. acc. as meaning physically "above."

Yet in looking today at BDAG, whereas hUPO w. acc. can indeed mean "below" 
in terms of location, there is no corresponding "above" (location) for hUPER in 
the 

definitions.

BDAG hUPO w. acc.: 
B. w. acc. 
- a position below an object or another position, under, w. acc. of place under, 
below 

- marker of that which is in a controlling position, under, under the control 
of, under 

obligation in ref. to power, rule, sovereignty, command, etc. 
- marker of the approximate time of a period, about w. acc.

BDAG hUPER w. acc.:
B. w. acc. 
- marker of a degree beyond that of a compared scale of extent, in the sense of 
excelling, surpassing, over and above, beyond, more than

So, can hUPER w. acc. mean physically above or over something (i.e., the 
opposite of hUPO w. acc.) in NT Greek, or not?
 
- - -
Eric S. Weiss 



      



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