[B-Greek] Col. 1:7

Ben and Jo Crick ben.crick at argonet.co.uk
Thu Oct 23 18:34:46 EDT 2003


On Thu 23 Oct 2003 (08:12:44), colby at solutions2000.net wrote:
> OS ESTIN PISTOS UPER UMWN DIAKONOS TOU XPISTOU
> 
> What is happening here? UPER UMWN 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?

 Dear Jonathan,

 Carl has of course given you a full answer; but if I may, I would point out
 that in a fully declined language such as Greek, the elements of a sentence
 can be in any order. You sort out subject-verb-object by the grammatical
 gender-number-case endings.

 So my take on hOS ESTIN PISTOS hUPER hUMWN DIAKONOS TOU CRISTOU would be
 "who is a faithful minister of Christ for you". 
 PISTOS is probably fronted as the most significant adjective, and hUPER
 hUMWN an adjectival phrase next. Epaphras is praised for his faithfulness
 and his selfless service to them as a Christian Deacon.

 My $0.02

 ERRWSQE
 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick BA CF, and Mrs Joanna (Goodwin) Crick
 <ben.crick at argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)







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