Phil. 2:10, 11

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Dec 15 13:19:07 EST 2001


At 12:58 PM -0500 12/15/01, Ted Mann wrote:
>Greetings friends:
>    In Phil. 2:10 and 11 the NASB has ".. at the name of Jesus every knee
>will bow.. and.. every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.. "
>The NIV and NRSV have "should" instead of "will."  However, the use of the
>subjunctive in Phil. 2:10 and 11 makes me wonder if "should" (or perhaps
>"might?") is to be preferred over "will."  I know this is a quote of Isaiah
>45:23, and I assume the Hebrew is best translated "will" or "shall."  I
>don't have the LXX to hand, so I don't know what is written there.  Does
>Paul quote the LXX here?  If so, does the LXX use the subjunctive?
>    Here is my main question:  Is it possible that Paul deliberately used
>(what has come to be called) the subjunctive here in order to soften the
>meaning of this OT passage so as to imply that men "should" bow and confess,
>rather than "will"?  (I also note in one of my versions that the beginning
>of this statement is translated "in the name of Jesus.. "  I guess EN can
>mean either "in" or "at.")

Ted, the reason Paul uses the subjunctive is simply that KAMYHi is in a
hINA purpose clause; he may be citing Isaiah 45:23, but he (or--if he is
citing a hymn already current in Gentile Christianity--the original
composer of it) is adapting it to the construction here to fit a purpose
clause. Whether it's right to translate a purpose clause with a future
indicative is another question; it's not something that I'd do.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/



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