Ephesians 4:12

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jul 11 09:41:50 EDT 2002


At 3:11 PM +0200 7/11/02, Roe wrote:
>Jay Anthony Adkins schrieb:
>                             [snip]
>
>> Ephe 4:12 (GNT) PROS TON KATARTISMON TWN AGIWN EIS ERGON DIAKONIAS, EIS
>> OIKODOMHN TOU SWMATOS TOU XRISTOU,
>>
>> Should a comma be placed after AGIWN, making a list 3 reasons for God's
>> gift of Apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers?  Or should
>> the comma be omitted as it is in my Greek text and the NASU making the
>> AGIWN the one's who do works of service to build up the body.
>
>
>Hi Jay,
>
>I know of no *rule* which would establish one reading over the other. It
>is my understanding, however, that the change of prepositions from PROS to
>EIS indicates a "more natural or expected" reading close to that of the
>oft-loosely translated NIV: "to prepare God's people for works of
>service..."
>
>Of course I'm looking at the EIS clauses as subordinate. My question would
>be, is the second EIS clause (EIS OIKODOMHN TOU SWMATOS...) subordinate to
>the first (EIS ERGON DIAKONIAS), or is it subordinate to TON KATARTISMON
>TWN AGIWN? That is, is the building up of the body a result of the ERGON
>DIAKONIAS of the saints, or is it parallel to the ERGON DIAKONIAS and a
>result of TON KATARTISMON TWN AGIWN?

I'd agree with this comment, both in what it asserts and in what it says
about ambiguity. The two phrases with EIS and verbal nouns are pretty
standard in Hellenistic Greek to signal BOTH purpose and result, and it's
often difficult to decide whether the phrase was intended by its author to
express purpose or result. The same is true of hWSTE with either infinitive
or indicative--such a clause may signal either purpose or result, and it's
not always crystal clear which the author intended.
-- 

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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