τῶν

Alphabet Analysis

The word

1. word🔊 τῶν

   tôn

   the
2. sentence🔊 Δυνάμεις τε οὐ τὰς τυχούσας ὁ θεὸς ἐποίει διὰ τῶν χειρῶν Παύλου.

   dy-NA-meis te ou tas ty-KHOU-sas ho the-OS e-POI-ei di-A tôn khei-RÔN PAU-lou

   miracles and not the extraordinary the God was doing through the hands of Paul

Exegesis

The prepositional phrase dia ton kheiron Paulou {διὰ τῶν χειρῶν Παύλου | di-à tôn khei-rôn Paú-lou} uses dia with the genitive to express means or agency “through the hands of Paul,” with the genitive chain ton kheiron Paulou indicating that Paul’s hands are the instrumental channel of divine activity. In translation, the fronted subject “powers/miracles” is brought into a more typical English position after the verb to maintain natural syntax, while the idiom “not the usual” is rendered as “not ordinary” or “extraordinary” to convey the qualitative contrast implied by the participle tychousas.

Root and etymology

diakoneō🔊 διακονέωdelta–iota–alpha–kappa–omicron–nu–epsilon–omega

“to serve, wait on, minister”

• 🔊 διάκονοςdelta–iota–alpha–kappa–omicron–nu–omicron–sigmaservant, ministerRomans 16:1
• 🔊 διακονίαdelta–iota–alpha–kappa–omicron–nu–iota–alphaservice, ministryActs 6:4