Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New Testament

An Essential Reference Resource for Exegesis

Murray J. Harris

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN:
  9780310531050
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Reference

Prepositions are important in the exegesis of the Greek New Testament, but they are at the same time very slippery words because they can have so many nuances. While Prepositions and Theology in the Greek New Testament rejects the idea of a “theology of the prepositions,” it is a study of the numerous places in the Greek New Testament where prepositions contribute to the theological meaning of the text.

Offered in the hope that it might encourage close study of the Greek text of the New Testament, its many features include the following:

• Coverage of all 17 “proper” and 42 “improper” prepositions
• Explores both literary and broader theological contexts
• Greek font—not transliteration—used throughout
• Comprehensive indexes to hundreds of verses, subjects, and Greek words
• Discussion of key repeated phrases that use a particular preposition

Chapter 1

Introduction

A. The Phases of the Greek Language

The following stages may be identified:

1. 1. Ancient Greek, a category that here includes both pre-Classical (especially Homer) and Classical Greek.
2. 2. Classical Greek, c. 450 BC–c. 330 BC, chiefly the Attic form.
3. 3. Hellenistic/Koine Greek, c. 330 BC–AD 330, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος (“the common language”), in its literary and vernacular forms, is marked by a virtual absence of dialectal forms except for local differences in pronunciation, and what Bortone (239 n.3) calls “slight regional variations.”1 The six main sources for our knowledge of Hellenistic Greek are: literary texts by writers such as Polybius and Epictetus; the Septuagint; the New Testament and other early Christian literature; the Ptolemaic papyri; the inscriptions; and the observations of grammarians such as Moeris and Phrynichus. The expression “Biblical Greek” is a convenient and traditional way of referring to the Greek of the LXX and the NT, without suggesting it forms a defined dialect of Hellenistic/Koine Greek.
4. 4. Medieval Greek/Byzantine Greek, AD 330 (the removal of the seat of government from Rome to Constantinople)—1453 (the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks).
5. 5. Modern Greek, AD 1453—the present; but specifically, in the present work, the Greek written or spoken at the present day, “contemporary standard Greek” (Bortone 238 n.1), in which two strands are interwoven—a popular, vernacular strand (Demotic) and an archaizing or Atticizing “purist” strand (Katharevousa).

The five stages isolated by Caragounis (in 2004) (XIII; and for more detail XX, 1–63) are (after the Mycenaean or Linear B stage [15th–12th century BC]):

1. 1. Archaic or Epic Greek (800–500 BC)
2. 2. The Classical (Attic) Period (500–300 BC)
3. 3. Post-classical Greek (c. 300 BC–AD 600)
4. 4. Byzantine-Mediaeval Greek (AD 600–1500)
5. 5. The Neohellenic Period (AD 1500–2000)

“Neohellenic at present (i.e., the language spoken and written today) is very broad, since it encompasses (simple) Katharevousa, moderate Demoticism and extreme Demoticism” (Caragounis 56–57). “A more cultivated Demotic is in effect a simple Katharevousa, and conversely, a simple Katharevousa, is a more cultivated Demotic” (58).

At an earlier time (1897) Jannaris (xv, xxii) delineated five periods:

1. 1. Attic (500–300 BC)
2. 2. Hellenistic (300–150 BC)
3. 3. Greco-Roman (150 BC–300 AD)
4. 4. Transitional (300–600 AD)
5. 5. Neohellenic (600–1900 AD)
   • • Byzantine (600–1000 AD)
   • • Mediaeval (1000–1450 AD)
   • • Modern (1450–1800 AD)
   • • Restorative (1800 AD–present)

However we divide up the stages of the Greek language, all agree “that greater changes took place during the 600 years separating Polybios from Homeros than during the 2,100 years between Polybios and our time” (Caragounis 68). This shows that “in the development of Greek time-length and change do not go hand in hand: contrary to what might be expected, greater changes may take place in a briefer period, while a more protracted period may be attended by slower change” (Caragounis 89).

B. Terminology

1. “Preposition”

The term “preposition” ultimately comes from πρό-θεσις, “a placing before, a fore-placement” (a term used by the Greek grammarian Dionysius Thrax), via the Latin prae-positio, also meaning “a placing before.” In Greek grammar it denotes an indeclinable word that is placed before a substantive or pronoun or prefixed to a verb. But originally “prepositions” followed the substantive (as still done in the NT with ἕνεκεν and χάριν) and therefore were “postpositions”! Etymology apart, a preposition is basically a word that denotes a relationship between other words—hence the German term for preposition, Verhältniswort, “word of relationship.” In each Greek preposition, it seems, there is an inherent, foundational meaning that is further defined by a particular context.2

2. “Proper” and “Improper” Prepositions

Those prepositions (such as ἐν) that can also serve as prefixes in compound w...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Select Bibliography and Abbreviations
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Distinctive Features of Prepositional Usage in New Testament Greek
• 3. Dangers to Be Avoided in Any Examination of New Testament Prepositional Usage
• 4. Ἀμφί and Ἀνά
• 5. Ἀντί
• 6. Ἀπό
• 7. Διά
• 8. Εἰς
• 9. Ἐκ
• 10. Ἐν
• 11. Ἐπί
• 12. Κατά
• 13. Μετά
• 14. Παρά
• 15. Περί
• 16. Πρό
• 17. Πρός
• 18. Σύν
• 19. Ὑπέρ
• 20. Ὑπό
• 21. Prepositions with Βαπτίζω
• 22. Prepositions with Πιστεύω and Πίστις
• 23. “Improper” Prepositions
• 24. Notable Uses of Selected “Improper” Prepositions
• Index of Biblical References
• Index of Greek Words and Expressions
• Index of Subjects