published by Bill Mounce on Sun, 10/10/2010 - 21:06
In the early times of Greek, before Classical Greek, there weren't prepositions. Basic ideas were associated with the different cases, and it was left up to the rhetorical skill of the speaker and the listening skills of the hearer to determine from context what was the specific meaning of the case.
Prepositions came into the language in an attempt to be more specific, a fact that a student of biblical Greek might find almost humorous considering the lack of specificity enjoyed by some prepositions. I mean, what really does επι really mean?
