Eph. 1:17 Function of EN
Harold R. Holmyard III
hholmyard at ont.com
Wed Jan 31 22:51:44 EST 2001
Dear james,
You write:
>I would appreciate some help in understanding the function EN in Eph.
>1:17. The text reads:
>
>hINA hO QEOS TOU KURIOU hHMWN IHSOU CRISTOU, hO PATHR THS DOXHS, DWHi
>hUMIN PNEUMA SOFIAS KAI APOKALUPSEWS EN EPIGNWSEI AUTOU
>
>While a number of options seem possible to me (e.g. reference: "with
>regards to knowing him", reason: "because you know him"), I was suprised
>to find two translations that treat this as indicating purpose or
>result.
>
>NIV: "so that you might know him better"
>TEV: "so that you will know him"
>
>I was not aware that EN could indicate purpose or result. Is this
>possible?
Paul prays that God might give a spirit of wisdom and revelation in full
knowledge of Him. It seems that the Ephesians do not have full knowledge of
God, and a spirit of wisdom and revelation would allow the knowledge Paul
desires them to have. The reader perhaps can understand "resulting" before
EN. May He give a spirit of wisdom and revelation (resulting) in full
knowledge of Him. Even in English it is not necessary to add "resulting" to
get the idea from a word for word translation.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
Dallas, TX
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