The ἀπό preposition in the Greek New Testament. Somes cases of controversy

Abstract

A proper understanding of the meaning of prepositions in context is vital for exegesis. Indeed, the exegetical debate has been sometimes about the value of a particular preposition. However, there are still cases of disagreement about the meaning of ἀπό morpholexeme in different passages of the New Testament in translations, major classical and New Testament Greek dictionaries as well as in some grammars and studies. This paper will analyze passages from the New Testament where the agentive value (passive predication) and the causal use of ἀπό are misidentifi ed with each other or with other functions such as separation, origin or intermediation. We will try to fi gure out, therefore, what is the signifi cant scope of the preposition in each case, following the methodology of the Greek-Spanish Dictionary of the New Testament (DGENT), (Córdoba 2000-) of J. Mateos (†) - J. Pelaez J. & GASCO, whose theoretical framework we will follow, as well as within the axis or conceptual continuum that encompasses the notions of cause, agent and intermediary. In short, this article shows how the application of the DGENT method of semantic analysis, representing new way of treating the lexemes, is a progress in the analysis and systematization of the semantic values of the ἀπό preposition in the corpus of the Greek of the NT because it allows to accurately analyze the preposition in context, shedding light on some New Testament passages in which the meaning has long been discussed by researchers.