[B-Greek] Eph 2:1 KAI hUMAS ONTAS NEKROUS TOIS PARAPTWMASIN KAI TAIS hAMARTIAIS hUMWN

David Bielby dbielby at bloomingtonvineyard.org
Thu Apr 14 19:10:21 EDT 2005


Thank you Dr. Conrad.

After reading your comments I felt pretty good. In a bible study I had
challenged Stott's stuff purely using my lexicons and maybe I got it right
after all! I did some more checking and have a further question or two now.
Peter O'Brien in his Pillar NT Commentary on Ephesians says that this phrase
is a Hendiadys with PARAPTWMASIN referring to individual sins because it is
plural and the addition of the synonym hAMARTIAIS helps form a hendiadys
bringing out the idea of the comprehensiveness of human evil.

Is this in line with what you were saying or is it going off a bit...?

Finally, am I correct in saying that the idea of distinguishing between
these two words (commission vs omission) in Ephesians 2:1 is an example of
an etymological fallacy?

Spahseebah (thank you)

David Bielby
dbielby at bloomingtonvineyard.org
www.bloomingtonvineyard.org



-----Original Message-----
From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 6:45 AM
To: David Bielby
Cc: Big Greeks
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Eph 2:1 KAI hUMAS ONTAS NEKROUS TOIS PARAPTWMASIN KAI
TAIS hAMARTIAIS hUMWN

At 9:39 PM -0500 4/13/05, David Bielby wrote:
>Eph 2:1  KAI hUMAS ONTAS NEKROUS TOIS PARAPTWMASIN KAI TAIS hAMARTIAIS
hUMWN
>
>
>
>I read in Stott's commentary on Ephesians that PARAPTWMASIN refers here to
>'commission' and
>
>hAMARTIAIS refers to 'ommission' sins. He says that hAMARTIAIS refers to
>'missing the mark'.  It seems
>
>to me that both terms may include both concepts and I cannot find as neat
of
>a dividing line in my lexicons.
>
>
>
>Does anyone have some insight on the distinction between PARAPTWMASIN and
>hAMARTIAIS in Eph 2:1?
>
>What does that mean exactly?

I don't think there's an ounce of distinction in this verse, especially
inasmuch as both words are plural and must refer to acts committed.
hAMARTIA is a more general word and can refer (in the singular) to a state
of being singful or to a state consequent upon having sinned, but
PARAPTWMA, a relatively rare word comparatively, regularly refers to a
specific sinful action. One should not be led astray by etymologizing here,
as both words are metaphorical in origin, the one (hAMARTIA) originally
referring to missing what one aims at, the other (PARAPTWMA) originally
referring to going off course or stumbling.

At any rate, in Eph 2:1 I think the difference between hAMARTIA and
PARAPTWMA is equivalent to the difference between "six" and "a half dozen."
-- 

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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