OUSIN in Phil 1:1

Clwinbery at aol.com Clwinbery at aol.com
Sat Mar 10 15:59:34 EST 2001



In a message dated 3/10/01 8:40:37 PM, njfitzpatrick at eircom.net writes:

<< Phil 1:1 reads 'PASIN TOIS hAGIOIS EN CRISTWi IHSOU TOIS 
OUSIN EN FILIPPOIS'.  In most translations OUSIN is given as 'who 
are'.  Other translations give 'that are', 'which are' or  'qui sunt', while 

some versions omit a translation.  OUSIN is the present participle 
active dative masculine second person plural.  

A search found three other examples in the NT, which are Eph 1:1, 
2Cor 1:1 and Romans 1:7.  In all of these 'who are' is the most 
common translation of OUSIN. 

Thus  none of the usual translations show that OUSIN is second 
person.  Would 'you who are' or, preferably, 'you being' be 
preferred translations?  

Explicitly using  the second person 'you'  makes the translation more 
personal, warm and intimate.  Secondly 'being' rather than 'who are' 
uses one word  rather than two words and shows more clearly that  
OUSIN is a present active participle, agreeing with hAGIOIS in 
number, gender and case.

Thus would an appropriate translation be '... to all the saints in Christ 
Jesus, you being in Philippi....'? >>

It seems to me that your problem is how to English a Greek text.  First the 
participle OUSIN as you say is the present participle of EIMI. The article 
simply relates it as an adjective back to PASIN TOIS hAGIOIS. Hence, Paul is 
addressing the letter (as is his common practice) to "all the saints who are 
in Phillippi." His use of the third person to do this may indeed sound less 
personal in English than in Greek, so if you wanted to render it, "to you 
Philippian saints," I would have no problem with that. It is unnecessary to 
get every word in Greek into some equivilent word in English. It is important 
to understand how every word in Greek was used by the author to frame his 
thoughts so as to convey them to the readers.

To paraphrase Luther's oft repeated comment about Hebrew to German. When you 
have the meaning of the Hebrew, lay aside the Hebrew and state it in the best 
German you know. (or something like that)  

Added note: we should not get into a broad discussion of translation 
philosophy, so I repeat, the participle is used here to modify those 
addressed in the letter (a common use of the dative) in the same way an 
adjective is used to modify a noun. That connection needs to be expressed in 
English.

Carlton Winbery
Prof. Religion
Louisiana College
Pineville, LA



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