EKTOS EI MH

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Apr 13 16:07:13 EDT 2000


At 9:49 PM +0300 4/13/00, Kimmo Huovila wrote:
>1 Cor. 15:2 says DI hOU KAI SWiZESQE, TINI LOGWi EUHGGELISAMHN hUMIN EI
>KATECETE, EKTOS EI MH EIKHi EPISTEUSATE.
>
>This is translated by NIV as "By this gospel you are saved, if you hold
>firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in
>vain."
>
>Is this a possible understanding of EKTOS EI MH? For that translation I
>would have supposed a Greek 'EI DE MH' or something like it. I thought
>EKTOS EI MH would be rather 'except' or 'unless', the sense being
>'through which you are also saved, if you hold on to the word I preached
>to you except in the case that you believed in vain (perhaps meaning in
>vain in the case that Jesus was not resurrected, as some Corinthians
>might have thought).
>
>Now, am I missing something essential here? Could someone explain this
>NIV translation to me? NIV is not alone, as some Finnish translations
>take it the same way. NASB's 'unless' seems more natural to me.

I suggest you take a look in our archives at a relatively brief thread
under the subject-header, "Exegesis of 1 Corinthians 15:2" initiated by
George Goold on December 30,1999. There was one more reply to that on
January 12, 2000, and then the thread was renewed in March: March 4-6 at
which time it was halted because, in the judgment of the
list-administrators, it had become an agenda-driven doctrinal dispute more
than a consideration of the Greek text's possibilities. Nevertheless, you
may find it useful to consult those messages in our archives.

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu 



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