Kata Markon

["David Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>]

Webber,

<<Therefore, he reminds them that before their very eyes "Jesus Christ was 
*written down* as the Crucified One."  The Greek word
here is PROEGRAFH, and refers to some form of written scroll/document.  That 
this "writting" could very well be the Gospel of Mark>>


The verb PROGRAFW means "to write before" or "graphically depict" according 
to the lexicons. The form PROEGRAFH is indicative aorist
passive 3rd person singular ("was written before"). The only other occurrence 
of this form of the verb in the NT is Romans 15:4
where it refers to a quote from Ps 69:10. In Eph 3:3 (where the form is 
indicative aorist active 1st person singular) it means "I
wrote before." This is where, I think, the definition of "graphically depict" 
actually comes from (that is, an interpretation to
make sense of the use here without having to assume a gospel existed so 
early), unless the form is found with the same meaning in
other Greek literature (I wouldn't know, as I don't have access to the TLG).

So, in Galatians it's use could refer to an OT proof text like it does in 
Romans. If the person who wrote that comment about Jesus
was *really* referring to a NT gospel account, it might just as easily be 
taken as an anachronism indicating the whole letter is
later than it may at first appear, or the author of that particular sentence 
is an interpolator from a later time.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio USA