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#5.
The Preposition DIA (Eph. 1: 1).
With a note on the meaning of the terms "preposition" and "genitive case".
pp. 29, 30
Paul was "an apostle of Christ Jesus". This office was not of his own seeking or
appointing; it was not received at the hands of men, but "by the will of God". The word
translated "by" here is dia, a preposition that governs the accusative and genitive cases.
We propose in the present article to consider briefly the meaning of these terms, with
particular reference to Eph. 1: 1.
What is a preposition? A preposition is a part of speech, usually a particle, placed
before a noun or its equivalent, and forming a qualifying or an adverbial phrase. Nearly
all the prepositions convey either the idea of motion going on, or rest as a result of
motion finished. Thus ek ("out") may be likened to the motion of an arrow just leaving
the bow; dia ("through") to the flight of the arrow through the air; eis ("unto") to the
direction of the arrow towards its goal; and en ("in") to the arrival of the arrow at the
mark. Every preposition can be indicated in terms of either motion or rest.
What is a case? In grammar a "case" is a form, indicated by a terminal change in the
word, which is used to express relationship. English has almost ceased to be an
inflectional or declined language. We now have only one case of this kind in common
use, namely the "apostrophe s", which we use to indicate the possessive (as in the
phrase "John's book"). In Greek there are four cases:
(1)
THE NOMINATIVE.--This stands for the subject of the sentence.
(2)
THE GENITIVE.--This answers to the English possessive, but is wider in its
scope, denoting origin. "Of" is a characteristic translation.
(3)
THE DATIVE.--The word is derived from the Latin "to give", and its
meaning can perhaps be understood from the usage in English
"Give me the book", which of course means "Give to me the book".
"To", "at", and "in" are characteristic translations.
(4)
THE ACCUSATIVE.--This is the object of the sentence.
These items will be more fully explained as instances are met with in the course of
this series. We trust that sufficient has been said for the moment.
Dia is a preposition that governs the accusative and genitive cases. In Eph. 1: 1 the
preposition governs the genitive, and we will therefore devote our attention to this aspect
only. From the special meaning "through", it is an easy transition to the conception of an
instrument through which anything is accomplished, as in John's epistle: "I would not
with ink and pen write" (II John 12). From material instruments the meaning passes to
the non-material, and so is associated with "power", "faith", "will", etc. There are
fifteen occurrences of dia followed by the genitive in Ephesians, and its meaning will
perhaps be made clearer if we use this opportunity to quote the passages concerned: