Ephesians 4:12
Jay Anthony Adkins
Jadkins26438 at cs.com
Thu Jul 11 18:22:58 EDT 2002
I Asked : (Snipped sections)
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.
D.W. Roe (David) wrote:
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..."
Then Carl W. Conrad wrote:
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.
First let me thank both people that responded to my query. It makes sense
to me as well that the change in prepositions may hold the key, but it
would be most difficult to be dogmatic due to the ambiguity involved.
Does anyone know of another verse we can look at to possibly resolve the
conflict, either from the Bible or early church fathers? And since this is
now outside of B-Greek, please respond off list unless your answer bears
on the Greek text. Thank you very much.
Sola Gratia,
Jay Adkins
Always Under Grace!
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