Instrumental EN
Eric Weiss (eweiss@gte.net)
Sun, 31 May 1998 23:32:16 -0500
I acquired a used copy of Chamberlain's Exegetical Grammar of the Greek
NT (c) 1957 (I think my Greek teacher had said it was good). Chamberlain
states that "In the New Testament, EN is used only with the locative
case" (p. 118), though he writes at the end of the section that "The
instrumental idea is sometimes expressed" (p. 119). My reading of
Blass-Debrunner-Funk (§195, §219) seems to indicate that EN is used in
the intrumental sense much more frequently than Chamberlain's stated
"sometimes." Having been taught the 5-case system, and only being a
novice user of Blass-Debrunner-Funk, I may not be reading or
understanding it correctly. But it seems to me that Chamberlain may be
incorrect here. In my reading and translating I had so frequently
regarded EN as meaning "with/by" (instrumental) that I'd almost
forgotten at times to translate it as "in"! Am I overdoing instrumental
EN?
--
"Eric S. Weiss"
http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm
eweiss@gte.net
S.D.G.