Conjunction – ὥσπερ; Preposition-conjunction – μέχρι

ObjectivesLearning objectives

• The syntax and semantics of the conjunction ὥσπερ and the preposition μέχρι
• The similarities and differences between μέχρι, ἄχρι, and ἕως

VocabularyVocabulary

SyntaxSyntax-semantics: Conjunction – ὥσπερ

The comparative conjunction ὥσπερ is often described as comparing two “manners” (Wallace 1996:675). This is often the case, as the first example of ὥσπερ in the NT demonstrates:

There are two “manners” available in Matt 6:2 that ὥσπερ could be comparing. Jesus could be telling people to not sound trumpets in the way that hypocrites sound trumpets, but trumpet-sounding in some form while donating is still permissible. You just have to do it in the right way. This, however, is no one’s interpretation of Matt 6:2 (and rightly so!). What is being compared here is not how trumpet-sounding is done, but how ‘donating’ is done. It should not be done like the hypocrites do it (who sound trumpets), but it should be done in a different manner (namely secretly).

While some clauses have two potential manners that might be compared, some descriptions with ὥσπερ have no “manners,” so it cannot be comparing how an action is done. This is particularly true of states:

We cannot say that Jonah is in the belly of a fish in Matt 12:40 in a particular way, i.e. there is no manner component. In clauses like this, then, ὥσπερ cannot be comparing two ways that an action can be done, but it must be comparing that a state exists like another one. In the same way that the state of Jonah being in the fish held, so will the state hold of the son of man being in the ‘heart of the earth’ for three days and three nights. We conclude from this that ὥσπερ compares two eventualities, whether states or events. When comparing events, the thing being compared is normally the way in which the events are done. When comparing states, the thing being compared is the kind of state that holds.

SyntaxSyntax-semantics: Preposition-conjunction – μέχρι

The preposition-conjunction μέχρι is very similar to ἄχρι and ἕως (on which, see 43.3.3.1 and 42.3.3.1 respectively). However, though the particles have overlapping meanings, they are not identical. Syntactically, all three words can be used as both a preposition (with a following noun) or a conjunction (with a following verb), but ἕως is the most common with a following verb. Both ἄχρι and μέχρι are often followed by the relative pronoun οὗ when used with a subsequent verb, showing that these two words are more readily used as prepositions (since οὗ would be a nominal element that would introduce the following clause).

In terms of their meaning, μέχρι is the narrowest. It can be used temporally, spatially, and to denote a certain degree:

• (570) Temporal μέχρι ὅτι εἰ ἐν Σοδόμοις ἐγενήθησαν αἱ δυνάμεις αἱ γενόμεναι ἐν σοί, ἔμεινεν ἂν μέχρι τῆς σήμερον (Matt 11:23)
• Because if in Sodom the wonders were performed which have been performed in you, it would have remained until today

Given that ἄχρι and μέχri are related (ἄχρι is derived from μέχρι), it is no surprise that their uses overlap considerably, but they seem to differ slightly. In the NT (and a quick survey seems to suggest that this holds outside of the NT as well), μέχρι is only used with temporal phrases that refer to a temporal boundary. While ἄχρι also seems to only combine with temporally-bounded events, it may be used to indicate the duration of a bounded event (rather than the endpoint of a bounded event), a use which μέχρι does not seem to have (see Acts 20:6). If μέχρι may also indicate temporal duration of an event, the difference between the two might be one of style, register, or geography instead of meaning.

What makes ἕως distinct from ἄχρι and μέχρι is that it readily combines two events without temporal boundaries and can, therefore, sometimes be translated as ‘while.’ This suggests that the boundary we find in ἕως phrases is not coming from the preposition/conjunction itself, but from its argument with which it combines. The following table summarizes the differences: