[B-Greek] Eph 4:22-24

David Bielby dbielby at bloomingtonvineyard.org
Mon Jun 27 14:35:45 EDT 2005


Dear Carl,

Once again I find myself at odds with Stott in his commentary on Ephesians.
He specifically claims these verbs represent not something that is to be
done, but something that has been done.  Quoting pg 180 in "The Message of
Ephesians" by John R.W. Stott,

'RSV is seriously misleading in that it renders the infinitive verbs as if
they were imperatives....in Ephesians 4 as in Colossians 3....the verbs are
not fresh commands but old ones that he is now reminding them of.'

FF Bruce draws a comparison to Col 3 and says there is a difference with Eph
4. It seems Stott uses the comparison to interpret Eph 4 to be past
descriptions.  But the difference between these passages cannot be used to 
change Eph 4...so I have to go with FF Bruce & you on this one.

Does Vs 23   ANANEOUSQAI DE TWi PNEUMATI TOU NOOS hUMWN  also have a bearing
since it's a present tense?


David


-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Conrad [mailto:cwconrad2 at mac.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 12:28 PM
To: Big Greeks
Cc: David Bielby
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Eph 4:22-24


On Jun 27, 2005, at 10:41 AM, David Bielby wrote:

> Vs 22   APOQESQAI UMAS KATA THN PROTERAN....
>
> Vs 23   ANANEOUSQAI DE TWi PNEUMATI TOU NOOS hUMWN
>
> Vs 24   KAI ENDUSASQAI TON KAINON ANQRWPON TON...
>
>
>
> My question is on the verbs here.  Should the two Aorist's be  
> handled as
> past tense or as
>
> imperatives.  Why?
>
>
>
> Having put off.or as imperatives.Put off.?  What impact does the  
> ANANEOUSQAI
>
> have on these Aorists?

Properly speaking, the aorist is a past tense only in the indicative,  
and the only place that an aorist infinitive can function to  
represent an indicative past tense  is in indirect discourse. There's  
no way that these infinitives are functioning as the verbs of an  
indirect-discourse construction: these infinitives represent actions  
TO BE performed, NOT actions that HAVE been performed. These forms  
are infinitives, but nevertheless they may have the semantic FORCE of  
imperatives in this context -- or else, as expressions of the nature  
of "learning Christ", i.e. "putting away one's former nature, getting  
renewed, putting on the new person ..."

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at ioa.com or cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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