Perfect participle in Eph. 1:18

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Sat Feb 10 12:41:24 EST 2001


Dear Jon,

You ask:

>Eph. 1:17-18
(17) hINA hO QEOS TOU KURIOU hHMWN IHSOU CRISTOU, hO PATHR THS DOXHS,
DWHi hUMIN PNEUMA SOFIAS KAI APOKALUYEWS EN EPIGNWSEI AUTOU, (18)
PEFWTISMENOUS TOUS OFQALMOUS THS KARDIAS [hUMWN] EIS TO EIDENAI hUMAS TIS
ESTIN hH ELPIS THS KLHSEUS AUTOU . . .

>How is the participle PEFWTISMENOUS used in this verse?  Could it express
purpose or result?  Wallace says, "since purpose is accomplished _as a
result_ of the action of the main verb, perfect participles are excluded
from this category (since they are typically antecedent in time)" GGBB,
635-6.  I'm doubting that Porter would agree with this statement,
although he doesn't comment much on perfect participles in _Idioms of the
GNT_, so I wouldn't know for sure.  Any thoughts?

I think that it is a conditional participle, giving the circumstances under
which the people will know what the hope of their calling is, and so forth.

			Yours,
			Harold Holmyard
			Dallas, TX





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