Eph. 6:9

Glenn Blank glennblank at earthlink.net
Thu Apr 18 13:01:41 EDT 2002



Jack Stewart wrote

>EIDOTES OTI KAI AUTWN KAI UMWN O KURIOS ESTIN EN OURANOIS
>
>seemingly very simple...my only question is: why can't this be translated: 
>"knowing that both their and your Lord is in heaven" [snip] the way in
which the 
>ESTIN is dealt with seems to be significantly different.  Is the phrase "he

>who is", or a phrase like it, necessary?

KAI AUTWN KAI UMWN is fronted, indicating special emphasis.  I wonder if the
ASV translation ("knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in 
heaven") is their way of bringing out that emphasis in English?

Also, ISTM that KURIOS in this construction is pretty unambiguously
referencing
a single referent.  "Both their and your Lord is in heaven" sounds a little
like
two Lords, a Lord who is  yours and a Lord who is theirs, are being talked
about 
(despite the singular verb).  It struck me as clumsy English and I wasn't
sure why,
but this might be the reason.

That, however, is about English and translation, and not about Greek.  As
you said,
both translations say essentially the same thing.  But as to your question
of whether
the phrase "he who is" is necessary, these seem to me to be the two aspects
of the 
Greek pragmatics and semantics that phrase is intended to convey:  the
emphasis on
KAI AUTWN KAI UMWN, and the fact that "their Lord" and "your Lord" is one
and the same.

This is along the same vein as Carl's comment:  "with an emphasis 
on both the masters and the slaves being subject to the Lord." 

glenn blank
Pensacola FL



More information about the B-Greek mailing list