The Dative

The dative is the case of the most English prepositions, and there is a historical reason. The language from which Greek descends had separate cases for the person something is given to, for the place where something happens, and for the means by which something is done. Over centuries Greek merged those three into one set of endings. So the Greek dative carries three families of meaning: personal (to, for), local (in, at, on, when) and instrumental (by, with). When you meet a dative, the first question is which family it belongs to, and the second is which member.

The dative is easy to spot. In the singular it nearly always ends with an iota, written full size or as a small subscript under the vowel: λόγῳ, ἀρχῇ, πνεύματι, πίστει. In the plural it ends in -οις, -αις or -σι(ν): λόγοις, ἀρχαῖς, πνεύμασιν. The article in the dative is τῷ, τῇ, τῷ in the singular and τοῖς, ταῖς, τοῖς in the plural. That little subscript iota is worth looking for; on a phone screen it can be very small.

Like the genitive, the dative has two jobs. It follows some prepositions, above all ἐν, in, which always takes the dative, and σύν, with. And it can stand on its own, with no preposition, carrying its meaning in the ending alone. Galatians 5:16 is the second kind. A bare dative asks more of the reader, because nothing but the context tells you which of its senses is meant. Sometimes it does not much matter. In Galatians 5:16, as you will see, it matters enough to have produced two different English traditions.

One complication is worth knowing early. New Testament Greek was written by people who often thought in Hebrew or Aramaic, and the Hebrew preposition be- means both in and by means of. So ἐν with the dative in the New Testament can carry the instrumental sense more often than it did in classical Greek. In Matthew 3:11 the SBL Greek New Testament (SBLGNT) has ἐν ὕδατι (en hydati) and ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ (en pneumati hagiō), which the BSB renders 'with water' and 'with the Holy Spirit'. The preposition is in; the sense is closer to with. A student who translates every ἐν as in will sometimes miss the point.

The personal family is the easiest. The commonest use is the indirect object, the person to whom something is given or said. John 4:21 opens λέγει αὐτῇ ὁ Ἰησοῦς (legei autē ho Iēsous), Jesus says to her: αὐτῇ is dative singular feminine, to her. Every verb of speaking or giving in the Gospels will show you this use.

Close to it is the dative of interest, naming the person for whose benefit or harm something happens. Philippians 1:21 begins ἐμοὶ γὰρ (emoi gar), 'For to me', a dative of the person from whose point of view the sentence is true: to me, as far as I am concerned, to live is Christ. Paul is not stating a general law of human life; he is saying what life is for him, and the dative tells you so.

The most theologically interesting member of this family is the dative of reference or relationship, saying in relation to whom or what something is true. Romans 6:11 tells believers to count themselves νεκροὺς μὲν τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ζῶντας δὲ τῷ θεῷ (nekrous men tē hamartia zōntas de tō theō), 'dead to sin, but alive to God'. Both nouns are dative. They do not say that sin is dead, or that the believer is dead in some general sense; they say that in relation to sin the believer is dead, and in relation to God alive.

Galatians 2:19 shows three cases working in one short clause. ἐγὼ γὰρ διὰ νόμου νόμῳ ἀπέθανον ἵνα θεῷ ζήσω (egō gar dia nomou nomō apethanon hina theō zēsō), 'For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God'. διὰ νόμου is a genitive after διά, through the law, the means. νόμῳ is a dative of reference, to the law, the relationship that ended. θεῷ is a dative of the same kind, to God, the relationship that began. The same noun, law, appears twice in two cases, and the cases carry the argument. An English reader sees law twice; a reader of the Greek sees two different relationships to it.

The instrumental family names how something is done. Ephesians 2:8, from the first lesson of this module, begins τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι, 'For it is by grace you have been saved': the bare dative τῇ χάριτι is means, grace as the means of salvation. Most readers hear that without effort, because the BSB's by is the right English. Some grammarians would call it a dative of cause, because of grace, and the difference is small.

The local family names where, or in what sphere, something is true. Galatians 2:20 shows both families with the same preposition in one sentence. ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκί, ἐν πίστει ζῶ (ho de nyn zō en sarki, en pistei zō): 'The life I live in the body, I live by faith'. ἐν σαρκί is sphere, the realm of bodily life in which Paul still lives. ἐν πίστει is means, the way he lives it. The BSB renders the first in and the second by, correctly, and the Greek has the same preposition with the same case both times. Only the sense of the sentence tells them apart.

Two more members of these families will turn up in almost any passage you study. The local family includes time: a bare dative can say when something happened. In 1 Corinthians 15:4 Paul writes that Christ ἐγήγερται τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇ τρίτῃ (egēgertai tē hēmera tē tritē), 'He was raised on the third day': no preposition, just the article, noun and adjective in the dative, and the English on comes from the case. The instrumental family includes association, the person with whom something is done, and it is the reason some verbs take a dative where English would expect an object. In Mark 2:14 Jesus says to Levi Ἀκολούθει μοι (Akolouthei moi), 'Follow Me', and μοι is dative, not accusative: to follow in Greek is to go along with someone, and the case keeps that picture. When your tool shows you a dative after a verb and you cannot see why, check the verb in a lexicon; many verbs of following, serving, believing and obeying take the dative as a matter of course, and in those cases the dative tells you about the verb more than about the noun.

That is why the datives of 1 Peter 3:18 are argued over. The SBLGNT reads θανατωθεὶς μὲν σαρκὶ ζῳοποιηθεὶς δὲ πνεύματι (thanatōtheis men sarki zōopoiētheis de pneumati), two bare datives balanced against each other with μέν and δέ. The BSB renders 'He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit', reading both as sphere: the realm of earthly life in which he died and the realm of the Spirit in which he was raised. The case for that reading is the balance of the clause. The two datives are set side by side with the same construction, and one cannot sensibly say he was put to death by means of the flesh, so the natural assumption is that the second dative works like the first. On this reading the verse contrasts two modes of existence, not two agents.

The King James Version reads 'being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit', taking the second dative as means and the Spirit as the Holy Spirit, the agent of the resurrection. The case for that reading is just as real. Romans 8:11 uses the same verb, ζῳοποιέω, give life, of God raising believers' mortal bodies and links that life to his Spirit, so the thought that the Spirit gives resurrection life is thoroughly apostolic. Greek writers can and do balance two datives that are not of the same kind, so the parallel does not force the same sense on both. And the reading fits the next verse, which speaks of what Christ did in that Spirit or spirit. Whether to print a capital S is therefore a decision about the dative and about the Holy Spirit at once. The manuscripts cannot settle it, because the earliest were written entirely in capital letters and later ones in small letters throughout; capital letters for divine names are the work of modern editors and translators.

Now the anchor verse. The SBLGNT reads Λέγω δέ, πνεύματι περιπατεῖτε (Legō de, pneumati peripateite), I say then, by the Spirit walk. The bare dative πνεύματι stands first in its clause, before the verb, and it has no article and no preposition. All the major translations take it as the Holy Spirit, since the chapter sets the Spirit of God against the flesh, and the capital S in English is right. The question is what relationship the dative names, and there are three serious answers.

Before weighing them, hear the verb. περιπατέω (peripateō) means to walk about, and in ordinary Greek it could mean a stroll. But Paul was formed by the Hebrew scriptures, and there the verb halak, to walk, is the commonest picture for the whole conduct of a life. Psalm 1:1 blesses the man 'who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked'; Micah 6:8 asks the people 'to walk humbly with your God'. Later Jewish teachers would call the body of practical instruction for daily life halakhah, the walking. So when Paul writes walk, he does not mean a special spiritual activity alongside ordinary life. He means ordinary life, the way you speak to your household, spend your money, treat your enemies and carry your temper, lived in some relationship to the Spirit. The dative tells you what that relationship is, and that is why it is worth the trouble.

The first is means: walk by the Spirit, that is, live by the Spirit's power and direction. This is the BSB's reading, and it is supported strongly in the context. Galatians 5:18 says 'if you are led by the Spirit', with the same bare dative after a passive verb, where means or agency is the only natural sense; and 5:22 speaks of 'the fruit of the Spirit', what the Spirit produces. On this reading the stress falls on enablement. The Galatians are not being told to try harder at keeping the law, which is what Paul has spent the letter opposing; they are being told that the Spirit is the one who makes a holy life possible.

The second is sphere: walk in the Spirit, that is, live within the realm the Spirit has brought about. This is the King James reading, and it has support in Paul's wider usage. Romans 8:9 tells believers that they are ἐν πνεύματι, in the Spirit, as against in the flesh, two realms or regimes of existence; and Galatians 5:25 begins 'Since we live by the Spirit', εἰ ζῶμεν πνεύματι, which some take as a statement of where believers now stand. On this reading the stress falls on identity: you belong to a new age, so live as people who belong there.

The third is rule or standard: walk according to the Spirit, keeping in line with him. The second half of 5:25 points this way, πνεύματι καὶ στοιχῶμεν, 'let us walk in step with the Spirit', using στοιχέω, a verb for standing in a row or keeping in line. Romans 8:4 makes the same contrast with an explicit preposition, those who do not walk κατὰ σάρκα, according to the flesh, but κατὰ πνεῦμα, according to the Spirit. On this reading the stress falls on direction: the Spirit sets the line and the believer keeps to it.

These are not rival doctrines. Every commentator on Galatians believes the Spirit empowers, that believers live in the new age of the Spirit, and that the Spirit guides. The argument is about which of those truths this particular dative puts in front, and the major commentaries differ on it. Many settle on means with a strong sense of direction, which joins the first and third readings. What a student should not do is choose one and announce that 'the Greek' means it. The Greek is a bare dative, and its range includes all three.

One more thing about the verb. περιπατεῖτε is spelled the same in the present indicative, you walk, and the present imperative, walk. Your tool parses it as imperative, and it is right to, because Λέγω δέ, I say, introduces an instruction. But the tool made that judgment from the context, just as it did with neuter nominatives in the first lesson of this module. The present tense suits a way of life, walking as an ongoing practice; Module 5 will show why that observation must not be pressed into a rule.

The second half of the verse holds a construction every student should learn to spot. καὶ ἐπιθυμίαν σαρκὸς οὐ μὴ τελέσητε (kai epithymian sarkos ou mē telesēte): and the desire of the flesh you will by no means carry out. ἐπιθυμίαν is accusative, the object; σαρκὸς is a genitive hanging on it, and from the last lesson you can now ask what kind: almost certainly subjective, the desire the flesh has. Then οὐ μή with an aorist subjunctive, τελέσητε.

οὐ and μή are both words for not, and when they are used together with an aorist subjunctive or a future indicative, they make the most emphatic denial Greek has: this will certainly not happen. It is common in the sayings of Jesus. Here it means that the half of the verse after and is not a second command but a promise. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the flesh's desire. The BSB's 'you will not gratify' and the King James Version's 'ye shall not fulfil' both render it as a promise, and on that point the grammar is settled.

The next verse is where readers part company. Galatians 5:17 says the flesh and the Spirit 'are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want'. One reading, long associated with Augustine and the Reformers, hears in that a description of the ongoing struggle of every believer: the Christian life is a real war, and the promise of 5:16 is fulfilled in the Spirit's prevailing over a flesh that still fights. Another reading, strong in the Wesleyan and holiness traditions and among some recent commentators, hears 5:17 as explaining why the command of 5:16 is needed: left to the flesh, a person cannot do the good he wants, but the one who walks by the Spirit is not trapped in that stalemate, which is exactly what 5:16 promises and 5:18 confirms. A third reading, held by some commentators, takes the last clause of 5:17 the other way round: the Spirit opposes the flesh precisely so that you do not do whatever the flesh would have you want, which makes the verse an encouragement rather than a lament. All these readings take sin seriously and all take the Spirit seriously. They differ over how much victory the promise leads a believer to expect in this life.

The dative cannot decide that question, and you should not ask it to. What the grammar gives you is firm enough to preach: a command in the present imperative to walk, a bare dative that ties the whole of that walking to the Spirit, and an emphatic promise attached to it. A sermon on this verse that told people to defeat the flesh by effort alone would contradict the dative. A sermon that told them they need do nothing would contradict the imperative. The verse holds both, and so should the preacher.

Return once more to the capstone page for your chosen passage. You have marked the cases, the articles and the genitives. Today, the datives.

First, on your phone, find every word you marked D in your case map and check it on STEP Bible or Blue Letter Bible. Look closely for the small iota under the last vowel, which is easy to miss on a phone screen. Then divide your datives into those that follow a preposition and those that stand alone. Mark the bare ones with a small square; they are the ones that need the most thought.

Second, for each bare dative, write the three family names across your page, personal, local, instrumental, and tick each one that could make sense in your verse. Then turn your ticks into English: to or for, in or at, by or with. If more than one reading makes sense, write each as a full English sentence, as this lesson did with walk by, in and according to the Spirit.

Third, compare how the BSB and the King James Version render each of your bare datives, since the older version often chooses in where newer ones choose by, and write which reading each has taken. Finish with one sentence per dative on which reading you think the context favours and why. When you write up your passage at the end of the track, these sentences will tell your hearers not just what the text says, but how sure you are of it.