Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως

[Jacob Rhoden]

I've not come across this before, are the words Πολυμερῶς and πολυτρόπως being used as a preposition, or is there another rule at play which I have not yet learnt?

Heb. 1:1
Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως πάλαι ὁ θεὸς λαλήσας τοῖς πατράσιν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις

[Wes Wood]

Πολυμερῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως πάλαι ὁ θεὸς λαλήσας τοῖς πατράσιν ἐν τοῖς προφήταις ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων ἐλάλησεν ἡμῖν ἐν υἱῷ,

I absolutely loved the way this passage sounded in English long before I could read Greek. The only verse that comes close to bringing me as much aesthetic pleasure is James 1:21, but only if it is read aloud from the KJV.

I believe Πολυμερῶς and πολυτρόπως are both adverbs. Many Greek adverbs end in -ως much like many English adverbs end in -ly. A loose translation: "God, who spoke to our fathers in the past through the prophets many times and in many different ways, spoke to us by his son during these last days."

[Jacob Rhoden]

Thanks Wes. I tried looking them up in the bible and they apparently appear no where else. I somehow have 5 or 6 greek dictionaries in Accordance, and none of them provide much information apart from the fact these words are a combination of the two other words.

And yes, I noticed this as well, this verse really does sound awesome to read aloud. It seems quite easy to read smoothly.

[Wes Wood]

If you know this already, please forgive me. If you can't find a word in a lexicon you have access to, you can always try LSJ. My favorite places to access it are here: http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=8 ... ext=search or through Perseus here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/mor ... ek#lexicon. Perseus is especially useful if you wish to see how a certain word is used in other Greek sources, and you can also access other lexica that you may find less challenging to use. I believe each of the urls above will take you directly to one of the entries for the words you were having trouble with. Maybe you will like the layout of one better than the other. Hope this helps!

[cwconrad]

If you know this already, please forgive me. If you can't find a word in a lexicon you have access to, you can always try LSJ. My favorite places to access it are here: http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=8 ... ext=search or through Perseus here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/mor ... ek#lexicon. Perseus is especially useful if you wish to see how a certain word is used in other Greek sources, and you can also access other lexica that you may find less challenging to use. I believe each of the urls above will take you directly to one of the entries for the words you were having trouble with. Maybe you will like the layout of one better than the other. Hope this helps!

Another site for viewing Perseus lexical information that I find very useful is Logeion. I've just accessed the verb ἀπόλλυμι at http://tinyurl.com/ofrmbk7. If you look at that page, you'll find the entries for this verb in all the different lexicons that show it, including (if you can use it) the excellent Spanish DGE which has an entry for a word that early in the alphabet. In addition, there are, in the right-hand column, word-frequencies, references to standard primers (of Attic, not Koine, Greek), lists of collocations -- words commonly associated with the word you're checking. At the bottom of the page there's a selection of texts showing the usage of the word you've looked up in several texts in which the word is used, so you can get a feel for some of the range of usage of the word in question. This site thus offers you quite a range of information and references to help you ascertain possible meanings and usages of the word you are checking. Some of this same information, to be sure, is also accessible at the other accessible LSJ sites.

[Stephen Carlson]

Another site for viewing Perseus lexical information that I find very useful is Logeion.

I'll second the vote for Logeion. It seems better maintained than Perseus even.

[Barry Hofstetter]

Logeion is a fine resource. On Heb 1:1 itself, it always reminds me of:

ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ...

[cwconrad]

Logeion is a fine resource. On Heb 1:1 itself, it always reminds me of:

ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ...

Well, it's the same word, but there's a far stretch between the wiliness of Odysseus and the versatility of God's revelation -- or is there? Perhaps in view of Heb 4:12 ...