blhowes
Puritan Board Professor
Thank-you for the explanation.Originally posted by poimen
Yes. If water was in the accusative case then Peter would have been saying "saved because of water." Peter's use of the preposition 'dia' in the chosen case means "through" or "by means of."
Yet the whole construction of the verse still tells us that water was the means of their 'salvation' not the ark. The water is the means, not the ground of their safety.
This is very similar to Paul's use of the word "faith" in regards to justification. Whenever he says were are justified by faith he never uses the accusative case which is significant because if he did then we would be justified because we had faith instead of being justified because of Christ's righteousness which we received by faith. He always uses the genitive (as Peter does in this verse) so we say we are justified by faith.