[B-Greek] Re: We versus You in Eph 1:3-14
WFWarren at aol.com
WFWarren at aol.com
Sun May 18 23:12:03 EDT 2003
I don't think the Greek solves this problem since the grammar and syntax is
not the primary difficulty. For the view that the Jewish Christians are
indicated by HMEIS and the Gentile ones by UMEIS, see the commentary by F. F.
Bruce on Ephesians. Also, Eph. 2 can be tied into this view quite nicely.
But these views quickly go into interpretation versus the concern of the list
with the Greek text itself.
paz,
Bill Warren
Director of the Center for New Testament Textual Studies
Landrum P. Leavell, II, Professor of New Testament
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
In a message dated 5/18/03 8:11:49 PM, moon at mail.sogang.ac.kr writes:
> Then, I would like to ask the following questions:
>
> (1) Do "we" and "us" in 1:3-12 refer to the believers who are other than
> those referred to by "you" in 1:13? If so, the most natural reference
> of "we" are Jewish believers and the most natural reference of "you"
> are Gentile believers, because in chapter 2 the oneness of Jewish
> believers and Gentile believers are specifically talked about and
> there "you" refer to Gentile believers.
>
> (2) But, in 1:3-11, there are no indications that "we" refer only to
> Jewish believers. We would have to say that
> "we" in 1:3-11 refer to all believers, both Jewish and Gentile, and
> "we" (hHMAS) in verse 12 refer to Jewish believers because
> it is specifically qualified by TOUS PROHLPIKOTAS EN TWi CRISTWi
> (those who first had hoped in Christ").
> NIV seems to support this interpretation, which says:
>
> in order that we, who were the fist to hope in Christ, might be
> for the praise of his glory.
>
> "Those who were the first to hope in Christ" is able to refer to
> Jewish believers, I think.
>
> If this is right, it is not easy to clearly see it in the text, is it?
>
> (3) R. C. H. Lenski objected to this interpretation. Thinking that
> "we" and "you" both refer to all believers, he
> translates the passage as follows:
>
> v 12: that we may be for his Glory-Praise as those who
> have hoped IN ADVANCE in the Christ,
>
> He comments: PRO in the perfect participle (PROHLPIKOTAS)
> refers to the future fulfillment of the hope; we now hope
> "in advance", hope shall finally turn to sight.
>
>
> At the moment, I think that number (2) is the right way to go.
> But Lenski's objection to it also seems to make sense to me.
> What do you think?
>
> Moon
> Moon R. Jung
> Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea.
>
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