From: Mike Sangrey (mike@sojurn.lns.pa.us)
Date: Tue Jun 13 2000 - 14:28:50 EDT
parousia_occ@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@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@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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