Bible Lexicons

† κατέναντι ,

adv.,

[in LXX chiefly for H5048, H6440, Genesis 7:1, etc.;]

over against, opposite, before: ἡ , κ . κώμη , Luke 19:30; as prep., c. gen., Matthew 21:2; Matthew 27:24 (ἀπ -, WH, mg.), Mark 11:2; Mark 12:41 (ἀπ -, WH, mg.) Mark 13:3; metaph., before, seq. θεοῦ , Romans 4:17, 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 12:19.†

The usage of κατέναντι (for form see Proleg. p. 99) c. gen. = ";opposite,"; ";over against,"; as in Mark 12:41; Mark 13:3 al., 1 Maccabees 2:41, is not so unknown to ";profane"; Greek, as Grimm-Thayer (s.v.) would lead us to suppose. Thus Rouffiac (Recherches, p. 34) quotes from Priene 37.170 (ii/B.C.) with reference to a treaty made—κατέναντι τοῦ ὄρευς, and in P Par 50.11 (B.C. 160) we read of a woman seated on the sand with a child—κατέναντι αὐτῆς : cf. also P Flor III. 370.7 (A.D. 132) κ [άταν ]τα Σαραπιήου. According to Wackernagel Hellenistica, p. 3 ff. (as quoted s.v. ἀπέναντι) the usage is due to Doric influence, and passed into the Κοινή about B.C. 300. The word survives in MGr.