A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

James Hastings • SECTION 777

Section 777

← A Dictionary of the Bible — Volume 3

honoured’; and Shaks. Macbeth, τ. ii. 13---

‘The merciless Macdonwald . . . from the western isles Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied.’

# road eae English, p. 212) urges with some reason that the Revisers should have adopted the modern idiom in Ca 2° and 54, tince to be sick of a thing means now to be heartily tired of it.

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7. But the most important of all the «bsolete uses of ‘of’ is its employment to introduce the agent, especially after a passive verb. This fune tion was performed both by the Anglo-Sax. ‘of’ and by the Fr. de ; it is therefore very common in the English of the 14th to 16th cent. By the beginning of the 17th cent. it was dying ont, ‘of’ being replaced by ‘by,’ so that (as has been pointed out under By) we have to do, not only with an idiom that is archaic to us, but also with one that is inconsistently applied. It further increases the difficulty that ‘ by? was used for the instrument or intermediate agency. Thus Lever, Sermons (Arber’s ed. p. 77), says, ‘We had never feast en of hym by his apostles’; and in AV we find, Mt 1533 ‘which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet’ (τὸ ῥηθὲν ὑπὸ κυρίου διὰ τοῦ προφήτου), RV ‘by the Lord through the prophet’).

The agent is usually expressed in Greek by ὑπό with the gen., and so ὑπό with the gen. is in AV usually translated by ‘of.’ In the following places, however, we find ‘by’: Mt 2251, Mk 54, Lk 218. 28 319 1317 1622 2116 238, Ac 1022 134.45 153.40 74 9711, Ro 321 15%4, 1 Co 111, 2 Co 33 819.20, Eph 211 613, Ph 123, Col 218, 2 ΤΊ 2%, He 23 34, 2P 121 32 Of hes the foll. are due to Tindale: Lk 1317 1622 238, Ac 102 153, Ro 1524, 1 Co 111, 2 Co 33 819.20, Eph 211, 2P 121; in the other cases AV has changed Tindale’s ‘of’ into ‘by.’ RV has always retained ‘ by’ where it is found in AV, and has changed AV ‘of’ into ‘by’ in Mt 12 215 148 1912 2712, Mic 831, Lic 221 97.8 1720, Ac 1614 2212 9310. 27 962 7, 1 Co 212 109. 10. 29 1424 bis, 2 Co 26 819, Ga] 111 317, Eph 512, Ph 312, He 11%, Ja 114 29 34.6, Jude 12.17,

The following passages deserve attention: 2 Es 1016 ‘Like as an arrow which is shot of a might archer’ (a sagittario valido); 16% ‘There are left some clusters of them that diligently seek through the vineyard’ (ab his, RV ‘by them’); Wis 157 ‘So of thy people was accepted both the salvation of the righteous and destruction of the enemies’ (ὑπὸ λαοῦ σου, RV ‘by thy people’); 1 Mac δ᾽" ‘their brethren that were in trouble, and assaulted of them’ (ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν); Mt 2 ‘He was mocked of the wise men’ (ὑπὸ τῶν μάγων) ; 11% * All things are delivered unto me of my Father’ (ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός pov); Lk 97 ‘Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him (ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ, edd. and RV om.): and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some (ὑπό τινων, RV ‘ by some’) that John was risen from the dead’; Ac 154 ‘they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders’ (ὑπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας) ; 1 Co 14* ‘he is convinced of all, he is judged of all’ (ὑπὸ πάντων, RV ‘by all’); 2 Co 8.5 “who was also chosen of the churches’ (χειροτονη- θεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν, RV ‘appointed by the churches’); Ph 3 ‘I am apprehended of Christ Jesus’ (ὑπὸ [rod] Χριστοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ, RV ‘by Christ Jesus’). Examples in early writers are easily found: take Ex 22%! Tind. ‘therfore shall ye eate no flesh that is torne of beestes in the feld’ ; and Booke of Precedence (E.E.T.S.) i. 76, ‘Stody alwaies to be loved of good men, and seeke nat to be hated of the Evell.’? The process of change may be illustrated from the history of the Pr. Bk. Thus in 1552 and 1559 we read (‘ Communion,’ Keeling, p. 191), ‘being so lovingly called and bidden of God himself’; but in 1604 and 1662 this is changed into ‘ by God himself.’ Cf. Lever, Sermons, p. 26, ‘For as there is no power of authorithy but of God, so is there none pnt in subjeccion under theym but by God. Those powers whiche be are ordeyned of God.’

8. Occasionally ‘of’ is redundant, as Dn 2®

‘Then Daniel requested of the king’; Sir 315 ‘The testimonies of his niggardness shall not be doubted of’; Ac 15°‘ The apostles and elders came

together for to consider of this matter’ (ἰδεῖν περί). Especially after gerunds, as 2S 2‘ Asahel would

not turn aside from following of him’; 8" ‘He returned from smiting of the Syrians’; Sir 20” ‘There is that . . . by accepting of persons over | throweth himself’; Jn 11‘ They thought that he

586 OFFENCE

OFFENCE

had spoken of taking of rest in sleep’; Ac 915 ‘They left beating of Paul.’ It is also sometimes omitted where we should use it, as Rev 18” ‘all manner vessels of ivory.’ E

9. Notice finally the phrases: Of certainty, Dn 2* (RV ‘of a certainty’); of force, He 9" (BéSacos) ; of purpose, Ru 2": οἵ. Bacon, Essays, p. 33, ‘ Wise men will rather doe sacrifice to Envy ; in suffering themselves sometimes of purpose to be crost’; in comparison of, Jg8*, Hag 2°; and ofa truth, Dn 2", Lk 455 22°, Ac 477 10*, J. HASTINGS.

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