You are here

Home

Prepositions

Was Jesus’ Body “For” You or “Broken” for You? (1 Cor 11:24)

published by Bill Mounce on Sun, 01/30/2011 - 21:24
Monday with Mounce

My brother-in-law asked me a question that came up in his Bible study the other day, and it illustrates several interesting points of Greek grammar. Thanks Terry.

1 Cor 11:24 in the ESV reads, “and when he had given thanks, he broke (εκλασεν) it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you (το υπερ υμων). Do this in remembrance of me.’” The interesting phrase is, “which is for you.”

What do Prepositions Modify (2 Thess 2:13)?

published by Bill Mounce on Mon, 05/03/2010 - 09:25
Monday with Mounce

Some times it can be tricky to hook a preposition up to the word it is modifying. In the example of 2 Thess 2:13, in the commentaries I checked they did not even discuss it. This is one of the advantages of Phrasing, but I will get to that in a second.

The verse reads, “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved (εις σωτηριαν) , through (εν) sanctification by the Spirit (αγιασμω πνευματος) and belief in the truth (πιστει αληθειας)” (ESV).

Prepositions and Christology (1 Timothy 1:2)

published by Bill Mounce on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 12:00
Monday with Mounce

“Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Tim 1:2). Paul begins his letter to Timothy with a somewhat normal greeting, and yet sometimes familiarity can hide significant truths from English eyes.

One of the joys of Greek is in seeing the nuances of grammatical constructions. Albeit, it can take some time in the language to develop this level of sensitivity, but that’s the joy of the journey.

In this verse, there is one preposition (“from,” apo) that governs two objects (“God” and “Christ Jesus”). Grammatically, this means that Paul is in some way thinking of the two objects as acting in unison, as one. If “God” and “Jesus” were two distinctly different entities, normal Greek grammar would require the preposition to be repeated (“from God and from Jesus”). But the single preposition means that the two objects are to be seen as a single entity.

Pages