1 Thess 2:15 ENANTIWN

Michael Holmes holmic at bethel.edu
Wed Oct 28 18:35:04 EST 1998


At 04:32 PM 10/28/98 -0600, Carl Conrad responded to my note:

>The problem with this is that ENANTI/WN in 1 Thess 2:15 cannot be a 
>participle--UNLESS it is a nominative sg. active of ENANTIOW; a participle 
>gen. pl. of ENANTIOOMAI would be ENANTIOUMENWN. That having been said, 
>there's nothing to prevent understanding ENANT/WN here as the genitive 
>plural of the adjective ENANTIOS/A/ON with an implicit ONTWN that would 
>yield the equivalent of a participle of ENANTIOOMAI.
>

Sorry, but I do not take ENANTI/WN in 1 Th 2.15 as a participle, I read it
as an adjective.  My apologies for not re-writing the note a bit more
expansively for re-use in response to Paul Dixon's query.  Permit me to
re-post the note with an expanded first line or two and see if that makes
more sense for Carl and others.

Paul's question was:
>>>In 1 Thess 2:15 should ENANTIWN be taken as a participle
>>>in parallel with the preceding participles APOKTEINANTWN
>>>... EDKIWXANTWN ... ARESKONTWN?
>>>
>>>Or, should it be taken simply as an adjective (as BAG
>>>has it listed under the adjective  ENANTIOS, A, ON rather
>>>than the verb ENANTIOOMAI).
>>

A revised version of my reply:

 Regarding the four participles in 2:15-16a [APOKTEINANTWN, EKDIWXANTWN,
ARESKONTWN, KWLUONTWN],

"In 2:15b–16a there are competing structural patterns: while the first three
clauses of vv. 15–16 are composed of a noun or pronoun phrase followed by a
participle, in the fourth clause the noun phrase is followed by an adjective
("hostile", i.e., EVAVTIWN) and then a participle ("hindering", i.e.,
KWLUONTWN).  Both the NIV ("They ...
are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us ...") and NRSV ("they ...
oppose everyone by hindering us ...") emphasize the adjective, as it
immediately follows the noun clause; they treat the adjective as if it were
a participle parallel to the first three, and subordinate the following
participle to it.  Alternatively, one may emphasize the obvious parallelism
of the four participles, as does the NASB ("not pleasing to God, but hostile
to all men, hindering us ...").  But the NASB treats the linking conjunction
KAI as though it were a contrasting one ("but," DE or ALLA); instead
translate "they are not pleasing to God and, hostile to humanity, are
hindering us ..." (cf. E. J. Richard, Thessalonians, 121–122).

Mike Holmes
Bethel College




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