Prepositions

Small words that choose a case

John 1:1 contains two little words that are easy to skip. Ἐν means "in", and πρὸς means "with". Words like these are prepositions: short words placed before a noun to say where, with whom, or by what means.

Greek adds one rule that English does not have. A preposition decides the case of the noun that follows it. In the lesson on cases you learned that endings tell you a noun's job. After a preposition, the preposition picks the ending. Look at John 1:1 again: after Ἐν comes ἀρχῇ, a dative, and after πρὸς comes θεόν, an accusative. If you wondered why God is accusative in "the Word was with God" when he is not the object of any verb, this is the answer: here πρός takes the accusative.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1

Prepositions that take one case

Start with the ones that nearly always take the same case.

εἰς (eis) is very common, about 1,760 times in the New Testament. In the Lord's Prayer, "lead us not into temptation," the noun after it, πειρασμόν, is accusative, and you can almost feel the movement inward. John 3:16 uses the same word for belief: εἰς αὐτὸν, literally "into him". But πιστεύω εἰς is simply a common Greek way to say "believe in", so English renders it "in Him."

ἐκ (ek, about 910 times) pictures coming out from inside. John 1:13 says God's children are "born of God", and after ἐκ the word θεοῦ is genitive. Before a vowel ἐκ becomes ἐξ, as in ἐξ αἱμάτων, "of blood", earlier in the same verse. Next, ἀπὸ (apo, about 640 times) pictures separation, and Nicodemus says Jesus has come "from God", with θεοῦ genitive again. The difference between ἐκ and ἀπό is often too slight to show in English, so do not worry about it.

A word of caution. The pictures "ἐν = inside, εἰς = going in, ἐκ = coming out" are helpful guides, not laws. A preposition's meaning stretches with context, and the John 3:16 "in him" is a good example: translators usually choose whatever English sounds natural. Guess from the picture, then check against the translation.

Prepositions whose meaning changes with the case

Some prepositions take more than one case, and the case changes the sense. Learn them by example rather than by a chart.

διά (dia, about 670 times) with the genitive means "through". John 1:3 says:

Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

John 1:3

δι᾽ αὐτοῦ is "through him", with a genitive pronoun. With the accusative, διά means "because of". In John 15:3, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you", the phrase is διὰ τὸν λόγον, with an accusative.

μετά (meta, about 465 times) with the genitive means "with". In 1 John 1:3 our fellowship is "with the Father": μετὰ τοῦ πατρὸς. With the accusative it means "after". Matthew 17:1 begins "after six days": μεθ᾽ ἡμέρας ἓξ.

πρός (pros, about 700 times) is, in the New Testament, usually followed by the accusative, as in John 1:1, and means "to, toward, with". In John 14:6, πρὸς τὸν πατέρα is "to the Father", again with an accusative.

A few more are worth recognising. κατὰ (kata, about 470 times) with the accusative means "according to", as in κατὰ τὰς γραφὰς, "according to the Scriptures" in 1 Corinthians 15:3. ἐπ᾽ (epi, about 885 times) has "upon" as its basic picture: in John 1:32 the Spirit remains "upon" Jesus, with αὐτόν accusative. Epi also takes the genitive and the dative, and its meanings spread out, so check the translation each time rather than memorising every case. Last, περὶ (peri, about 330 times) means "about, concerning": "concerning the Word of life" is περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς in 1 John 1:1.

Shortened forms

In John 1:3 you saw δι᾽ rather than διά. When a preposition meets a word that starts with a vowel, its final vowel is often dropped and an apostrophe-like mark (᾽) takes its place. This is called elision. All four of these appear in the verses above.

Notice that μεθ᾽ has a θ, not a τ. The next word, ἡμέρας, starts with a rough breathing, and the τ changes to θ to match it. When you see ᾽ after a preposition, just think "shortened" and restore the full word. You do not need to look up the short forms separately.

Summary

A preposition decides the case of the noun after it: ἐν takes the dative, εἰς the accusative, ἐκ and ἀπό the genitive. Others, such as διά and μετά, change meaning with the case. Spatial pictures are guides, not laws, and elided forms such as δι᾽, ἀπ᾽, μεθ᾽ are the same words in short dress. Pairing a preposition with its noun's case is already a big part of reading a Greek phrase.

Words in this lesson

• εἰςeistoward1,760 times in the NT
• ἐκekout from913 times in the NT
• ἐπίepiupon/to/against885 times in the NT
• διάdiathrough/because of666 times in the NT
• ἀπόapoaway from644 times in the NT
• κατάkataaccording to472 times in the NT
• μετάmetawith/after465 times in the NT
• περίperiabout332 times in the NT

Practice