[B-Greek] Colossians 1:11 NRSV

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Mar 27 06:21:39 EST 2003


At 9:25 PM -0600 3/26/03, Eric Weiss wrote:
>The NRSV translates Colossians 1:11 as "May you be made strong with all
>the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared
>to endure everything with patience, [while joyfully]"
>
>I don't understand this "may you be prepared" translation. The Greek is
>EIS PASAN hUPOMONHN KAI MAKROQUMIAN, and NASB, NIV, NAB translate it
>along the lines of "for-the-attaining-of/so-that-you-may-have/for all
>steadfastness and patience"
>
>Back in 1:10, the similar phrase EIS PASAN ARESKEIAN is translated by
>NASB as "to please Him in all respects," the NIV as "in order that you
>may please him in every way," the NAB has "so as to be fully pleasing,"
>and the NRSV has "fully pleasing to him." In other words, this EIS PASAN
>phrase is treated as a purpose clause or as a complementary(?)
>statement, complementing "live a life worthy of the Lord."
>
>The PERIPATHSAI ("to walk/live your life") immediately preceding EIS
>PASAN ARESKEIAN seems to be a purpose statement (i.e., "so that")
>following the hINA subjunctive clause in 1:9: "We pray that (hINA) you
>may be filled ... so-that-you-may-live-lives worthy of the Lord,
>pleasing Him in every way."
>
>My question is: Why do the NRSV translators translate this second EIS
>PASAN prepositional phrase as if it's on the same syntactical or
>semantic level as the preceding participles (KARPOFOROUNTES,
>AUXANOMENOI, DUNAMOUMENOI) and not like the previous EIS PASAN clause or
>even as the immediately preceding KATA prepositional phrase?

Eric, I think this is really a matter of translation strategy more than
anything else, but it does arise from a troubling kind of syntactic
looseness that one finds frequently in Ephesians and Colossians. For my
part I don't think it is wise to reproduce the structure of the Greek in a
translation but would prefer to gather an understanding of all that is
being said and then put it into a formulation in the target language that
most naturally expresses what is being said.

>DIA TOUTO KAI hMEIS
>   AF' hHS hHMERAS HKOUSAMEN,
>OU PAUOMEQA
>   UPER hUMWN
>PROSEUCOMENOI KAI AITOUMENOI
>   hINA PLHRWQHTE THN EPIGNWSIN TOU QELHMATOS AUTOU
>         EN PASHi SOFIAi KAI SUNESEI PNEUMATIKHi
>      PERIPATHSAI AXIWS TOU KURIOU
>            EIS PASAN ARESKEIN
>         EN PANTI ERGWi AGAQWi KARPOFOROUNTES
>      KAI
>         AUXANOMENOI THi EPIGNWSEI TOU QEOU
>         EN PASHi DUNAMEI DUNAMOUMENOI
>               KATA TO KRATOS THS DOXHS AUTOU
>            EIS PASAN hUPOMONHN KAI MAKROQUMIAN
>
>or something like this layout (I hope the indentations display properly
>in the posting), maybe...

One point initially is that the hINA PLHRWQHTE clause is NOT a purpose
clause but a substantive clause functioning as the object of the two
participles PROSEUCOMENOI and AITOUMENOI; it could be said that Hellenistic
Greek tends to take older distinct syntactic constructions for purpose,
result, and verbal objectives generally and use them in each other's older
functions. So the hINA PLHRWQHTE clause states generally the WHAT of "our
request in prayer on your behalf"; then the infinitive PERIPATHSAI and the
participles KARPOFOROUNTES, AUXANOMENOI, and DUNANOUMENOI all function
pretty much appositionally to the hINA PLHRWQHTE clause; note that
AUXANOMENOI THi EPIGNWSEI TOU QEOU is not really different in essence from
PLHRWQHTE THN EPIGNWSIN TOU QELHMATOS AUTOU. As for the EIS + verbal-noun
clauses, they could be viewed as expressing either (a) purpose, (b) result,
or (c) just another appositional object of the opening verbal phrase OU
PAUOMEQA hUPER hUMWN PROSEUCOMENOI KAI AITOUMENOI. I wouldn't even attempt
the sort of structural pattern you've drawn because I just don't believe
the syntax is that logically structured. I'd suggest a much looser pattern
expressive of the content thus:

So we too, ever since we heard, don't stop praying for you:
	your being filled with a grasp of his will,
	your walking with rich spiritual grasp worthily of the Lord
		in order to please him fully
	your bearing of fruit in every good deed
	your growing in knowledge of God
	your empowerment with full power in terms of his glorious might
		in order to endure fully ...

To repeat and restate my point (once again!), I think it is futile to
attempt a strict grammatical analysis of this passage in terms of elements
subordinated one to another; rather, given the initial set-up of prayer on
behalf of those addressed, what follows is a loosely connected sequence of
petitions on their behalf, all of them indicating what the writer wants to
happen to/in his listeners/readers and without any specific linkage or
subordination of any one element in the whole group to any other, with
perhaps a distinction between the two EIS PASAN phrases, the first of which
seems focused more on behavior that pleases God, the second on strength
from God to confront perils--and yet, it seems to me that one could,
without losing much, put those two phrases on the same level as all the
others. That would yield something like this:

So we too, ever since we heard, don't stop praying for you:
	your being filled with a grasp of his will,
	your walking with rich spiritual grasp worthily of the Lord
	your pleasing him fully,
	your bearing of fruit in every good deed
	your growing in knowledge of God
	your empowerment with full power in terms of his glorious might
	your enduring without diminution ...

In Homeric studies this sort of structure is sometimes called LEXIS
EIROMENH, a style of discourse characterized, as it were, by beads strung
loosely on a string. My impression, although I've never had the inclination
to read up on this or study it in any detail, is that this style of writing
as it appears in Colossians and Ephesians, is essentially liturgical; such
catenae of petitions are part of a litany of sorts.

My 2c worth.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/


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