Biblical Greek for Everyone (BG4E)
We use the English preposition ‘into’ in contexts such as “He coughed into his hand”, “Dad slipped some money into his hand” or as below with less concrete expressions involving capture and imprisonment. Greek seems to consistently use εἰς whether we might use either ‘into’ or ‘in’.
εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τῶν Ῥωμαίων into the hands of the Romans
δέσμιος ἐξ Ἱεροσολύμων παρεδόθην εἰς τὰς χεῖρας τῶν Ῥωμαίων I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over into the hands of the Romans (Acts 28:17). εἰς χεῖρας θεοῦ ζῶντος into the hands of the living God
φοβερὸν τὸ ἐμπεσεῖν εἰς χεῖρας θεοῦ ζῶντος It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31) This next one might seem unusual and unexpected from an English-speaking perspective. Greek conventionally construes the landmark χεῖρες as containers even when the trajector is not physically contained and held by the hands. With jewelry, clothing, and other objects that extend all the way around a body part like a hand (or also the foot in the example below).* Students might find usage like this confusing. It is important to remember just how much of all language, including your own, is conventionalized and idiomatic.
εἰς τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ on his finger
δότε δακτύλιον εἰς τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑποδήματα εἰς τοὺς πόδας Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet (Luke 15:22). There are a few things that motivate this usage. First, because εἰς is a preposition that involves motion toward a goal, physical contact is readily construed as the end of motion and the achieving of that goal. In this context, also, the container schema is metonymically shifting from the landmark (hand) to the trajector (ring) that goes around the finger. This usage is normal primarily to body parts. Because body parts are attached to animate participants, the body part landmark, despite being surrounded by the trajector, still exerts control over the trajector, via a metaphorː CONTROL IS CONTACT. When a ring is on a finger or a sandal is on a foot, the hand or foot still exerts control over that ring/sandal: one moves, the other moves. The hand is not merely a stable reference point for the ring, it effects and controls the ring even as the ring encompasses the finger. Animate landmarks exert control over trajectors that are in contact with them.*
Hands are for grasping objects and objects can escape or be taken from that grasp, which is why ἐκ is the common preposition with hands rather than ἀπό. We have English expressions similar to this for ἐκ, even though we more often use ‘in’ rather than ‘into’ where Greek nearly always prefers εἰς. The following still work, whether glossed in English as ‘out of’ or ‘from’.
ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν out of their grasp
ἐζήτουν οὖν πάλιν αὐτὸν πιάσαι καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp (John 10:39). ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ ἀγγέλου from the angel’s hand
καὶ ἔλαβον τὸ βιβλαρίδιον ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς τοῦ ἀγγέλου καὶ κατέφαγον αὐτό I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it (Rev 10:10). ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτοῦ from his hand
ὡς δὲ εἶδον οἱ βάρβαροι κρεμάμενον τὸ θηρίον ἐκ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἔλεγον… When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other… (Acts 28:4). Note that in these cases, the path out of/from is still profiled by the preposition. Examples 4-5 both illustrate motion on a path out and away from the hand. In example 6, it is the snakes body itself that extends along the path. Here, the perspective involves the eyes scanning the line of the snake’s body from the hand where it is attached to the end of its tail.
Finally, chains, which wrap around hands/wrists, function within the same grammatical convention as rings and fingers. When chains are the trajector of a hand landmark, Greek speakers prefer prepositions that activate the container schema, even though the hand is not a “literal” container for the chain. While chains do bind the hand, recall that the hand is still able to exert control over them. When a bound hand moves, the chain or rope that binds it moves with it.
ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν off his wrists
λέγων Ἀνάστα ἐν τάχει καὶ ἐξέπεσαν αὐτοῦ αἱ ἁλύσεις ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off his wrists (Acts 12:7). Moving to ἐν, objects being held by a hand are conceived as being in the hand. This tracks comparatively with English usage of the preposition ‘in’ with ‘hand’. When an object is currently being grasped by a hand, Greek speakers use ἐν.
ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν in their hands
περιβεβλημένους στολὰς λευκάς καὶ φοίνικες ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (Rev 7:9). ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτῆς in her hand
ἔχουσα ποτήριον χρυσοῦν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτῆς γέμον βδελυγμάτων καὶ τὰ ἀκάθαρτα τῆς πορνείας αὐτῆς She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries (Rev 17:4). Between εἰς, ἐν, and ἐκ, students can put things in their hands, hold things in their hands and take them out of their hands. But hands are not only for holding objects. They also function as the natural human instruments for manipulating objects in the world. This is where διά ‘through’ comes into play. Body parts are instruments or intermediaries for volitional action, as below.
We use our hands to mold, create, manipulate, and transform what’s around us. In English, it would be natural to say, “I typed this essay with my hands”. In Ancient Greek, διὰ τῶν χειρῶν μου would be equally natural.
The last preposition we encounter with χείρ in the New Testament is ἐπὶ, which is the normal way of expressing that a trajector is on the surface of the hand (landmark), as in the examples below. To quell any suspicion about the naturalness of these, given their source, there are also examples from Classical and literary post-Classical texts (Cf. Plutarch, De Pythiae Oraculis 12). Note that both the genitive and accusative cases appear here with the same sense.
ἐπὶ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν τῆς δεξιᾶς on their right hands
καὶ ποιεῖ πάντας, τοὺς μικροὺς καὶ τοὺς μεγάλους, καὶ τοὺς πλουσίους καὶ τοὺς πτωχούς, καὶ τοὺς ἐλευθέρους καὶ τοὺς δούλους, ἵνα δῶσιν αὐτοῖς χάραγμα ἐπὶ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν τῆς δεξιᾶς ἢ ἐπὶ τὸ μέτωπον αὐτῶν It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads (Rev 13:16). ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ on their hand
Εἴ τις προσκυνεῖ τὸ θηρίον καὶ τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ καὶ λαμβάνει χάραγμα ἐπὶ τοῦ μετώπου αὐτοῦ ἢ ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand (Rev 14:9). At first glance, the following two examples seem a bit unusual. From the discussion above, we might hypothesize the use of ἐν rather than ἐπί. But translations do not necessarily reflect the construals present in the source language. The NIV adds “holding” to the English translation but the Greek text itself says: “having the key to the Abyss and a great ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ chain. The example above with a trajector (tattoo) in contact with the surface of the landmark (hand) ought to be our guiding influence for understanding what kind of mental representation is evoked in the minds of native speakers. In Revelation 20:1, we need to ask how the concept of ‘contact on a surface’ might be visualized by the audience. Rather than a grasping hand, we might see an open palm with a great chain lying across.
ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ in his hand
Καὶ εἶδον ἄγγελον καταβαίνοντα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἔχοντα τὴν κλεῖν τῆς ἀβύσσου καὶ ἅλυσιν μεγάλην ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and [holding] in his hand a great chain (Rev 20:1). ἐπὶ χειρῶν in their hands
Τοῖς ἀγγέλοις αὐτοῦ ἐντελεῖται περὶ σοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ χειρῶν ἀροῦσίν σε μήποτε προσκόψῃς πρὸς λίθον τὸν πόδα σου He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands (Matt 4:6). The same question applies to Matthew 4:6. Are the angels reaching down to grasp onto Jesus as he falls? Such an image would certainly be activated by εἰς or ἐν, but ἐπί? That doesn’t square with the semantics of the preposition. Instead, perhaps an image of angels below Jesus with their arms extended forward to catch him is more appropriate. This interpretation corresponds to the kind of surface contact relationships that we would expect from this preposition. But it may take more care in the prospect of allowing students to act this one out. Still, the preposition ἐπί provides students another way to think about how their hands can be used with prepositions. With ἐπί, it’s best to view the position of the hand as open and flat so that the trajector can rest on top of it.
Understanding how different languages construe relationships with prepositions is an important part of language learning. The goal here is to illustrate how body parts and embodied action can be employed in useful ways for the purpose of language learning, both in grammar and the lexicon. Instructors may be able to use information like this to find creative ways to help students think about Greek prepositions beyond the use of flash cards.
Understanding prepositions is an important part of the process of Bible translation. Prepositions and the relationships they specify are highly language specific. When reading texts, we often bring the expectations of our native language. But a better understanding can be reached if we first identify the patterns/conventions of prepositional usage in the source language, and then think carefully about the comparable patterns/conventions in the target language. ═════════════════════════════ The simplest exercises involve putting things on your feet and taking them off. Luke has guidance for what prepositions to use in examples (1-2).
εἰς τοὺς πόδας on his feet εἶπεν δὲ ὁ πατὴρ πρὸς τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ Ταχὺ ἐξενέγκατε στολὴν τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἐνδύσατε αὐτόν καὶ δότε δακτύλιον εἰς τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑποδήματα εἰς τοὺς πόδας Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet (Luke 15:22). ἀπὸ τῶν ποδῶν ὑμῶν off your feet καὶ ὅσοι ἂν μὴ δέχωνται ὑμᾶς ἐξερχόμενοι ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως ἐκείνης τὸν κονιορτὸν ἀπὸ τῶν ποδῶν ὑμῶν ἀποτινάσσετε εἰς μαρτύριον ἐπʼ αὐτούς If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. (Luke 9:5). We put on our shoes with εἰς and take them off with ἀπό. Notably, ἐκ is never used in the post-Classical period to mean remove something from one’s feet. Instead, there is an idiom ἐκ ποδὸς, which we will return to in a moment.
The preposition εἰς is also used with ποῦς in the context where things cling to our feet, such as dirt, dust, mud, and so forth, as in example (3).
εἰς τοὺς πόδας to the feet Καὶ τὸν κονιορτὸν τὸν κολληθέντα ἡμῖν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως ὑμῶν εἰς τοὺς πόδας ἀπομασσόμεθα ὑμῖν Even the dust that clings to the feet from your town we wipe off as a warning to you (Luke 10:11). Acting this usage out might not be a wise choice in a classroom setting. But if you have opportunity to take students for a walk after a storm, you could still have your students practicing saying things like: ὁ βόρβορος ὁ κολληθείς εἰς τὸ ἐμβάδιον (the mud that clings to the shoe).
As we saw with rings on fingers before, dirt, dust, shoes, and sandals, all cling to feet in a similar manner, such that the body part exerts control over them. This is why we also find occurrences with ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν, meaning ‘on your feet’. In Moses’s instructions for the Passover, he says in example (4).
ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν on your feet οὕτως δὲ φάγεσθε αὐτό· αἱ ὀσφύες ὑμῶν περιεζωσμέναι, καὶ τὰ ὑποδήματα ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν ὑμῶν, καὶ αἱ βακτηρίαι ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ὑμῶν· καὶ ἔδεσθε αὐτὸ μετὰ σπουδῆς· πάσχα ἐστὶν Κυρίῳ. Thus you will eat it with a belt around your waits and your sandals on your feet and staffs in your hands. You will eat it quickly. It is a Passover to the Lord (Exodus 12:11). The preposition ἐν with ποῦς can also be used with a few different spatial relationships worth exploring. It can be used to refer to the means of travel, where in English we might say, “on foot” or “by foot”, as in (5).
ἐν ποσὶν αὐτοῦ on foot Βαρὰκ ἐν κοιλάσιν ἀπέστειλεν ἐν ποσὶν αὐτοῦ. She sent Barak into the valley on foot (Judges 5:15). It can also be used to refer to an area closely around the landmark when the trajector is plural or a mass noun. This space around the landmark is construed as under its control.
ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν at their feet καὶ ἐπορεύθη ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἰούδα καὶ βασιλεὺς Ἐδώμ, καὶ ἐκύκλωσαν ὁδὸν ἑπτὰ ἡμερῶν· καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὕδωρ τῇ παρεμβολῇ καὶ τοῖς κτήνεσιν τοῖς ἐν τοῖς ποσὶν αὐτῶν The king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom went and circled the road for seven days. There was no water for in the camp and there were the flocks and herds at their feet (4 Kingdoms 3:10). A great opportunity to practice some imperatives, too, would be a prepositional phrase like: ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας σου, where Acts 26:16 gives an ideal example in (7).
ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας σου on your feet ἀλλὰ ἀνάστηθι καὶ στῆθι ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας σου ‘Now get up and stand on your feet (Acts 26:16). Commands make for another opportunity for practical, non-memorization language learning, because you can gives commands to your students at unexpected moments, both reinforcing the meaning of verbs, the imperative mood, and in this case, not only the preposition ἐπί, but also the middle voice (body actions are natural middle voice expressions).
The idiom ἐκ ποδὸς which has the fascinating sense of following someone ἐκ ποδὸς: to follow them from their footprints and thus, close behind them, as in example (8).
ἐκ ποδὸς close behind καὶ τραπέντας οὐκ ἀνίει διώκων Ἰώαβος, ἀλλʼ αὐτός τε ἐπέκειτο παρακελευόμενος τοὺς ὁπλίτας ἐκ ποδὸς ἕπεσθαι When they fled, Joab did not stop chasing them. Instead he pressed forward, calling on his troops to follow him close behind (Josephus, Antiquities 7.13). The Brill Josephus translation and commentary project wrongly translates ἐκ ποδὸς with the English, “on foot”, referring to the manner of travel. Verbs of following are a necessary part of the idiom, footprints are construed as the source of the path to follow (see also: Polybius, Histories 14.8.13). This expression actually parallels another prepositional phrase: κατὰ πόδα αὐτοῦ, a common path expression where κατά with the accusative is used for non-dispersed and non-meandering paths. Here the feet of the people being chased are the path of soldiers giving chase, as in Judges 20:43 (example 9).
κατὰ πόδα αὐτοῦ at their heels καὶ κατέκοπτον τὸν Βενιαμείν, καὶ ἐδίωξαν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ Νουὰ κατὰ πόδα αὐτοῦ ἕως ἀπέναντι Γαβαὰ πρὸς ἀνατολὰς ἡλίου. And they cut down Benjamin and they pursued him from Nova at their heels as far as before Gibeah toward the rising sun (Judges 20:43). Depending on how comfortable you are with an active classroom, both these expressions could be readily acted out among students.
In more static expressions, παρά expresses proximity to a persons feet, as in examples (10-11).
παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ near his feet καὶ στᾶσα ὀπίσω παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ κλαίουσα τοῖς δάκρυσιν ἤρξατο βρέχειν τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ καὶ ταῖς θριξὶν τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτῆς ἐξέμασσεν καὶ κατεφίλει τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ καὶ ἤλειφεν τῷ μύρῳ As she stood behind him near his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears (Luke 7:38). παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ near Jesus’ feet ἐξῆλθον δὲ ἰδεῖν τὸ γεγονὸς καὶ ἦλθον πρὸς τὸν Ἰησοῦν καὶ εὗρον καθήμενον τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀφʼ οὗ τὰ δαιμόνια ἐξῆλθεν ἱματισμένον καὶ σωφρονοῦντα παρὰ τοὺς πόδας τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting near Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; (Luke 8:35). If you build up a larger set of vocabulary of objects from the Biblical text, using παρά+accusative would be an excellent answer to the question: “Where is [X]?” (Ποῦ [οὗτος];). And of course, depending on the what is near whose feet in the classroom, παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ is one legitimate answer.
The preposition πρός is also relevant. This preposition is used when the trajector has an orientation that points toward the landmark (i.e. the object of the preposition). Thus, when someone falls at your feet, πρός is used to specify the orientation of the person facing toward the feet, as in example (12).
πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ at his feet ἔπεσεν δὲ παραχρῆμα πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐξέψυξεν At that moment she fell down at his feet and died (Acts 5:10). There are probably some creative ways πρὸς τοὺς πόδας could be adopted in the classroom, though it might be best if teachers do not have their students falling down at their feet.
Finally, we can orient objects beneath our feet. When we add force and control to the situation, ὑπό is a natural choice, as in example (13).
ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας ὑμῶν under your feet ὁ δὲ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης συντρίψει τὸν Σατανᾶν ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας ὑμῶν ἐν τάχει ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ μεθʼ ὑμῶν The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (Rom 16:20). ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτῆς under her feet Καὶ σημεῖον μέγα ὤφθη ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ γυνὴ περιβεβλημένη τὸν ἥλιον καὶ ἡ σελήνη ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτῆς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτῆς στέφανος ἀστέρων δώδεκα A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head (Rev 12:1). If it is simply the position underneath that is being highlighted, then ὑποκάτω works very well, as in example (14).
Understanding how different languages construe relationships with prepositions is an important part of language learning. The goal here is to illustrate how body parts and embodied action can be employed in useful ways for the purpose of language learning, both in grammar and the lexicon. Instructors may be able to use information like this to find creative ways to help students think about Greek prepositions beyond the use of flash cards.