[B-Greek] Sense of EIS in Eph 1:19

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Apr 11 14:55:21 EDT 2003


> At 11:37 AM -0700 4/10/03, Dr. Ralph F. Wilson wrote:
> >I am trying to get the sense of the participle EIS in Ephesians
> 1:19, in the
> >phrase THS DUNAMEWS AUTOU EIS hHMAS. Danker (BDAG 290, 4g) cites
> this verse
> >as an example of the preposition "used as the dative, especially
> the dative of advantage, but also = for in general."
> >
> >Just what is the sense of EIS in this passage?
> >= for, on behalf of?
> >= in, into, within?
> >or is it pretty hard to be certain?
> >

I find it helpful to think of EIS basically as "towards", that is,
indicating direction, either in terms of location or in an extended sense,
including aim, goal or purpose.

> >Marcus Barth translates it as "his power over us believers"
> which seems to miss the characteristic sense of EIS.

Yes, "over us" does not seem to catch the meaning of EIS here.

> One really ought to see the larger context: KAI TI TO hUPERBALLON MEGEQOS
> THS DUNAMEWS AUTOU EIS hHMAS TOUS PISTEUONTAS KATA THN ENERGEIAN TOU
> KRATOUS THS ISCUOS AUTOU.
>
> This is part of that awesome string of genitives dependent upon other
> genitives that so characterizes this section of Ephesians. I think I would
> understand this as a circumlocution for "what exceedingly great things He
> is able (to do) FOR US in terms of the working of his mighty power." That
> is to say, EIS hHMAS is indeed equivalent to hHMIN; Hellenistic
> Greek shows
> the gradual movement away from use of the dative to use of prepositions
> PROS and EIS with nouns and pronouns; that accounts for the very common
> equivalents of LEGEI AUTWi and LEGEI PROS AUTON. In Eph 1:19 I think the
> difficulty is in making EIS hHMAS depend directly upon DUNAMIS: it's not
> really "power for us" or "power unto us" so much as "power to do (things)
> for us."
> --
>
> Carl W. Conrad

If I may add a bit to Carl's comments, if EIS is directional, it can refer
to the experiencer or recipient of an action. The recipient and beneficiary
are semantically quite close and for some verbal ideas there may be no
distinction. Normally I would expect the dative or hUPER for the
beneficiary.

There are some other instances of EIS hHMAS which it may be helpful to look
at also to get a feel for the range of meanings of EIS hHMAS:
Acts 3:4 BLEYON EIS hHMAS
Rom 5:8 SUNISTHSIN DE THN hEAUTOU AGAPHN EIS hHMAS hO QEOS (love directed
towards us as recipients)
Rom 8:18 THN MELLOUSAN DOXAN APOKALUFQHNAI EIS hHMAS (revealed to us as
recipients and partakers of it)
2 Cor 1:5 KAQWS PERISSEUEI TA PAQHMATA TOU CRISTOU EIS hHMAS (as the
sufferings of Christ abound towards us, i.e. as recipients and partakers: we
experience in great measure his sufferings.)
Eph 1:7-8 KATA TO PLOUTOS THS CARITOS AUTOU hHS EPERISSEUSEN EIS hHMAS
(according to the richness of his grace which he lavished towards us, again
recipients).

Some of these are similar to 1:19 which talks about "the overwhelming
greatness of his power towards us who believe". The believers must in some
way be the recipients of that great power itself or the results/effects of
the power. Carl seems to prefer the last option by supplying "to do things"
and explicating "his power" to "what he is able (to do)". This may be
correct, but I am still wondering whether it could also mean that this great
power is available to us or that we have received that great power, not just
the results of it.

Iver Larsen



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