[B-Greek] Col. 1:7

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Oct 23 08:44:13 EDT 2003


At 8:12 AM -0300 10/23/03, John Colby wrote:
>Speaking of Epaphras Paul writes:
>
>hOS ESTIN PISTOS hUPER hUMWN DIAKONOS TOU XPISTOU
>
>What is happening here? hUPER hUMWN seems to be in a strange place. Would
>this >be translated "Who is faithful on your behalf- a servant of Christ"
>or "Who is >a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf"? I think the last
>option is >correct, but I have never seen a prepositional phrase
>"interrupt" like this >before. Whatever is happening, is this common in
>the NT?

I would understand hUPER hUMWN as qualifying the adjective PISTOS--and I
think the word-order reflects that. As for translation, your second option
is probably better English, but you might also make it: "who is a servant
of Christ faithful on your behalf."

The pattern of the word-order is not essentially different from the
sandwiching of elements between article and noun in the attributive
construction: hOI TOTE ANQRWPOI, hAI KALAI GUNAIKES.

For what it's worth, I think the pattern here is more common in Greek
poetry than in prose, but it is quite common in Latin; I think there's more
impact of Latin patterns of speech in Koine Greek than is supposed.
-- 

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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