[B-Greek] Ephesian 1:13a: incomplete sentence?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu May 15 12:42:43 EDT 2003


At 6:35 AM -0400 5/15/03, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>Owing to some technical problems that I don't yet understand,the following
>message from Moon Jung failed to get distributed to the list yesterday.
>
>Forwarded for Moon R. Jung <moon at mail.sogang.ac.kr>
>To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Ephesian 1:13a: incomplete sentence?
>Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 08:14:59 +0900
>
>Dear listers,
>
>I have some questions about the constructions of Eph 1:11-13.
>
>11: EN hWi KAI EKLHRWQHMEN ...
>12:  EIS TO EINAI hHMAS EIS EPAINON DOXHS AUTOU...
>13a: EN hWi KAI hUMEIS AKOUSANTES ....
>13b: EN hWi KAI PISTEUSANTES ESFRAGISQHTE .....

The whole text: EN hWi KAI EKLHRWQHMEN PROORISQENTES KATA PROQESIN TOU TA
PANTA ENERGOUNTOS KATA THN BOULHN TOU QELHMATOS AUTOU 12 EIS TO EINAI hHMAS
EIS EPAINON DOXHS AUTOU TOUS PROHLPIKOTAS EN TWi CRISTWi. 13 EN hWi KAI
hUMEIS AKOUSANTES TON LOGON THS ALHQEIAS, TO EUAGGELION THS SWTHRIAS hUMWN,
EN hWi KAI PISTEUSANTES ESFRAGISQHTE TWi PNEUMATI THS EPAGGELIAS TWi hAGIWi.

I will note at the outset, for what it's worth, that it seems to me that it
is about this point in chapter 1 that the syntax begins to become LESS
problematic than it was in the previous 10 verses, wherein the linkage
between clauses was, to say the least, problematic. Here the "problem" in
my opinion is the function of the recurrent prepositional phrase EN hWi. I
am assuming that the dative relative pronoun here is functioning as a
demonstrative referring to the antecendent named in EN CRISTWi in verse 10
and named again in verse 12, so that EN hWi here is equivalent to EN TOUTWi
and implicitly equivalent to EN CRISTWi. But at the beginning of verse 13a
the linkage of the EN hWi phrase is a bit murkier than elsewhere within
these verses--and this, I think, is the source of the problem that Moon
finds here; in my view this EN hWi is REPEATED--redundantly--after the
participial phrase AKOUSANTES ... THS SWTHRIAS hUMWN. In sum, I believe
that Moon's option (2) is the right approach.


>Questions:
>
>(1) The clause of 13a is incomplete in that it does not have
>     a main verb. Is the verb omitted because it can be inferred?
>    [This is my current position. The missing verb might be
>     EKLHRWQHMEN in v. 11 or EINAI EIS EPAINON DOXHS in v. 12]
>
>Or (2) Can you think as follows?
>
>
>   (a)  AKOUSANTES (13a) and PISTEUSANTES (13b) are sequentially
>        connected. (We hear and then believe)
>   (b) EN hWi in 13b does not introduce a new clause, but is
>        the repetition of that in 13a, the repetition being made
>       for emphasis or clarification.
>   (c) Hence, the main clause of 13a is the verb that appears in 13b,
>       that is, ESFRAGISQHTE.
>
>(3) What is the force of KAI in 13a in front  of hUMEIS?
>   (a) Does it mean "you also" in contrast to "we" in verses 11 and 12?
>  [ This is my current position]
>   (b) Does KAI modify the whole clause hUMEIS AKOUSANTES ....
>      so that it means "you, also having heared..."?
>
>
>(4) If the answer to question (3) is (a), the most natural reference
>     of "you" would be Gentile believers as clearly illustrated in chapter
>     2, where "you" are Gentiles believers who were not part of the people
>     of God. Then  "we" is supposed to refer to Jewish believers. But
>     nothing in the context suggests that "we" refer to Jewish believers.
>     If "we" refer to both Jewish and Gentile believers, then, can "you"
>     refer to Gentile believers? If "we" is inclusive, then "you also"
>     sounds weird.
>
>
>Sincerely
>Moon
>Moon R. Jung
>Associate Professor
>Dept of Media Tech,
>Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea
>
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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-- 

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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