Friday, October 22, 2004
Gk 2: prepositions
I think that, rather than trying to memorize "dry" prepositions and
associated cases, it
will be better for me to go back to the old method of memorizing some
key verses of the NT containing those prepositions. This has the
advantage of practicing to remember passages of the Scripture. And this
is, I think, quite important - incidentally, I never understood why,
back in school, we were asked to memorize some well known poems,
perhaps some
piece of literature [Dante has always been one of my favorites], and
this is all well and good, but never anything from the Bible (which
literature, history and philosophy classes mostly ignored, anyway).
Another example of dogmatic application of the (all too often
misinterpreted) concept of "laicism", I suppose.
I digged out examples and meaning mostly via the BDAG (not all meanings are reported here). I've tried to select the examples so that they remind me of a well-known episode or situation.
The full list: ανα, αντι, απο, δια, εκ, εις, εν, επι, κατα, μετα, παρα, περι, προ, προς, συν, υπερ, υπο. There is also a visual representation.
This is a visual representation of some of the prepositions:
Technology note: the client-side map of the picture above was created using the freeware program Map This.
I digged out examples and meaning mostly via the BDAG (not all meanings are reported here). I've tried to select the examples so that they remind me of a well-known episode or situation.
The full list: ανα, αντι, απο, δια, εκ, εις, εν, επι, κατα, μετα, παρα, περι, προ, προς, συν, υπερ, υπο. There is also a visual representation.
| Preposition |
Meaning |
Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ἀνά + Acc |
Lit.: up, upon
|
|
| ἀντί + Gen |
|
|
| ἀπό + Gen |
basic sense:
separation from someone of something |
καθεῖλεν δυνάστας ἀπὸ θρόνων καὶ ὕψωσεν ταπεινούς (Lk
1:52) |
| διά + Gen |
through |
πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὺτοῦ
ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἑν ὃ γέγονεν (John
1:3) |
| διά + Acc |
through, but
primarily in the sense of "on account of,
because of, owing to" |
ᾔδει γὰρ ὅτι διὰ φθόνον παρέδωκαν αὐτόν (Matt
27:18) |
| ἐκ (ἐξ before
vowels) + Gen |
motion from the
interior |
οὐκ ἐρωτῶ ἵνα ἄρῃς αὐτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου αλλ' ἴνα τηρήσῃς
αὐτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ (John
17:15) |
| εἰς + Acc |
|
|
| ἐν + Dat |
being or remaining
within |
ἐν
ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λὸγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ
λόγος. (John
1:1) |
| ἐπί + Gen |
upon, near (esp.
marking the position on a surface) |
ἐλθέτε ἠ βασιλεία σου, γενηθήτω
τὸ θέλημὰ σου, ὠς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ
γῆς (Matt
6:10) |
| ἐπί + Dat | on, in, above,
immediate proximity |
καὶ ἐπέταξεν αὐτοῖς ἀνακλῖναι πάντας συμπόσια συμπόσια ἐπὶ τῷ χλωρῷ χόρτῳ (Mark 6:39) |
| ἐπί + Acc | on, toward,
specifying active motion, e.g. direction |
τετάρτῃ δὲ φυλακῇ τῆς νυκτὸς
ἧλθεν πρὸς αὐτοὺς περιπατῶν ἐπὶ τὴν
θάλασσαν (Matt
14:25) |
| κατά + Gen |
|
|
| κατά + Acc |
|
|
| μετά + Gen |
with, among |
καὶ ἧν μετὰ τῶν θηρίων, καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι
διηκόνουν αὐτῷ (Mark
1:13) |
| μετά + Acc | after, behind |
καὶ
μεθ' ἡμέρας ἕξ παραλαμβάνει ὁ Ἰησοῦς τὸν Πέτρον καὶ Ἰάκωβον καὶ
Ἰωάννην τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὰναφέρει αὐτοὺς εὶς ὄρος ὑψηλὸν κατ'
ἰδίαν (Matt
17:1) |
| παρά + Gen |
from beside |
καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἐζήτουν
ἅπτεσθαι αὐτοῦ, ὅτι δύναμις παρ' αὐτοῦ
ἐξήρχετο καὶ ἰᾶτο πάντας (Lk
6:19) |
| παρά + Dat | by the side of
(close association) |
ὀ δὲ Ἱησοῦς εἰδὼς τὸν
διαλογισμὸν τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν ἐπιλαβόμενος παιδίον ἔστησεν αὐτὸ παρ' ἑαυτῷ (Lk
9:47) |
| παρά + Acc |
motion alongside |
καὶ παράγων παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν τῆς Γαλιλαίας
ἑιδεν Σίμωνα καὶ Ἀνδρέαν τὸν ἀδελφὸν Σίμωνος ἀμφιβάλλοντας ἐν τῇ
θαλάσσῃ· ἧσαν γὰρ ἁλιεῖς (Mark
1:16) |
| περί + Gen |
concerning, as regards |
λέγων, Τί ὑμῖν δοκεῖ περὶ τοῦ Χρισοῦ; (Matt
22:42) |
| περί + Acc |
around, about |
καὶ ἧν ὁ Ἰωαννης ἐνδεδυμένος
τρίχας καμήλου καὶ ζώνην δερματίνην περὶ
τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ (Mark
1:6) |
| πρό + Gen |
before |
Ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν
μου πρὸ προσώπου σου (Matt
11:10) |
| πρός + Gen |
(on the side of, in the
direction of) from |
διὸ παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς μεταλαβεῖν
τροφῆς, τοῦτο γὰρ πρὸς τῆς ὑμετέρας
σωτηρίας ὑπάρχει (Acts
27:34, only occurrence in the NT) |
| πρός + Dat |
(on the side of, in the
direction of) at |
καὶ θεωρεῖ δύο ἀγγέλους ἐν
λευκοῖς καθεζομένος, ἕνα πρὸς τῇ
κεφαλῇ καὶ ἕνα πρὸς τοῖς ποσίν (John
20:12) |
| πρός + Acc |
(on the side of, in the
direction of) to |
ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λὸγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. (John 1:1) |
| σύν + Dat |
with (association with) |
ἀπεθάνετε γάρ, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ὑμῶν
κέκρυπται σὺν τῷ Χριστῷ ἐν τῷ
θεῷ (Col
3:3) |
| ὑπέρ + Gen |
on behalf of |
ὃς γάρ οὐκ ἔστιν καθ' ἡμῶν, ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐστιν (Mark 9:40) |
| ὑπέρ + Acc |
over, above |
οὐκ ἔστιν μαθητὴς ὑπὲρ τὸν διδάσκαλον οὐδὲ δοῦλος ὑπὲρ τὸν κύριον αὐτοῦ (Matt
10:24) |
| ὑπό + Gen |
by |
τοῦτο δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν ἵνα
πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ κυρίου
διὰ τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος (Matt
1:22) |
| ὑπό + Acc |
under |
ἁμαρτία γὰρ ὑμῶν οὐ κυριεύσει, οὐ γὰρ ἐστε ὑπὸ νόμον ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ χάριν (Rom 6:14) |
This is a visual representation of some of the prepositions:
Technology note: the client-side map of the picture above was created using the freeware program Map This.
Comments:
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That's a useful table, and an instructive image. Thanks for posting them! However, the English text in the middle column is real hard to read, because of the font. (At least with my browser/font-setup)
/Göran H
/Göran H
Thanks for the note Göran; I have now explicitly set a font-size of 12pt in my CSS for the blocks containing Greek fonts. The table is more readable indeed now.
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