aft'-er, aft'-er-werd: The fundamental thought, in which all shades of meaning unite, is that of succession either in time or place. This succession may be immediate or remote. A very common adaptation of this conception the use of "after" to denote "according to," "after the manner of," or "in the order of," as in Genesis 1:26; Ephesians 4:24; Luke 1:59; Romans 5:14; Hebrews 4:11 (the Revised Version, margin "unto"), and in many passages where the Greek uses the preposition kata, as Matthew 23:3; Romans 8:4; 1 Corinthians 1:26, etc. "In proportion to": Psalms 28:4; compare Psalms 90:15. It sometimes correctly translates a peculiar Greek idiom of the preposition dia, with the genitive case, indicating time elapsed, as Mark 2:1, literally, "through some days," "after some days had passed"; compare Acts 24:17. While the Greek is expressed by a variety of words, the Hebrew uses 'achar for both preposition and adverb.

H. E. Jacobs

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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