G473

• {"n":"John 1:16","s":"Grace for grace. The preposition normally means instead of, which makes the phrase hard rather than warm.","u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/bible-translation-differences\/#id=john-1-16","r":"John 1:16","b":[{"l":"How modern translations read it","t":"Versions read grace upon grace, or one blessing after another, or grace in place of grace. The spread is unusually wide."},{"l":"First, in plain English","t":"**I traded one car for another** against **I stacked one book on another.** For and on point in opposite directions. One replaces, one piles up. The Greek word here is normally the trading one, and almost every English Bible prints the stacking one."},{"l":"What you are seeing","t":"Anti ordinarily means instead of or in place of, as in a substitution. It is the preposition behind antichrist and anti-type. Reading charin anti charitos as grace piled on grace requires anti to mean something closer to upon or succeeding, which is a much rarer use."},{"l":"Why translators split","t":"English has no preposition that means one thing replacing another of the same kind in a continuous series. In place of sounds like a swap and upon sounds like a stack, and the Greek sits between them."},{"l":"The rule to carry away","t":"When a preposition is doing unexpected work, look up what it ordinarily means before accepting a rendering that feels comfortable. Comfortable renderings of prepositions are where a lot of quiet interpretation hides."},{"l":"Choosing between them","t":"Grace upon grace reads as abundance and is the majority modern choice. Grace in place of grace reads as the new covenant replacing the old, which is exactly what verse 17 goes on to describe with Moses and Christ. The context supports the harder reading more than the translations do."},{"l":"The word","t":"\u1f00\u03bd\u03c4\u03af anti \u00b7 G473"}],"src":["Anti in the substitution sense: Matthew 2:22; 20:28; Hebrews 12:16","The contrast structure of John 1:17, the law through Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ"]}