EN hUMIN in 1 Cor 3.18

Carl Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Nov 23 06:27:04 EST 2002


> Greetings to all:
> 
> 1 Cor 3.18: EI TIS DOKEI SOFOS EINAI EN hUMIN EN TWi AIWNI TOUTWi, 
> MWROS GENESQW, hINA GENHTAI SOFOS.
> 
> It seems that there are two possible ways to construe EN hUMIN--either 
> with TIS or SOFOS. It looks like most English translations opt for the 
> former ("anyone among you" or something similar). The only exception I 
> know of is the ASV ("If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in 
> this world"). It seems to me that the difference is substantial. If 
> construed with TIS, the reference would be simply to anyone among them 
> who considered himself wise. If construed with SOFOS, the reference 
> would be to someone who fancied himself wise among, i.e., in comparison
> with, others in the congregation. This would seem to fit not only the 
> immediate, but also the broader context of 1 Corinthians, where the 
> exaltation of one above another or of oneself above others is 
> prominent. Its position in the sentence would seem to substantiate this
> understanding. DOKEI introduces an object clause expressing indirect 
> speech. So EN hUMIN, placed as it is within the object clause, would 
> seem more naturally to be part of the indirect speech than part of the 
> controlling clause. Converted to direct speech, we would have something
> like, "I consider myself wise among you," or, to loosely paraphrase, 
> "Among this lot, I think I'm a standout in the wisdom department." Does
> this sound right?

I think that you're essentially right, Steven, in the understanding of the
context and in how this bears on the argument. I think I'd be more
inclined to construe EN hUMIN with DOKEI than directly with SOFOS. While I
haven't examined usage in the GNT of TIS as yet, certainly the older
standard construction for "(any)one of you" is TIS + partitive genitive,
although I know I've seen the Latinate TIS EK + genitive for this also. So
I think the Greek says, "If anyone has a reputation among you as being
wise ..."

Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu



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