[B-Greek] Ephesians 6:18

George F Somsel gfsomsel at juno.com
Wed Sep 7 17:06:28 EDT 2005


On Wed, 7 Sep 2005 15:10:44 -0500 "David Bielby"
<dbielby at bloomingtonvineyard.org> writes:
> PROSEUXOMENOI PERI PANTWN TWN AGIWN KAI UPER EMOU
> 
> Am I correct in translating PERI here as if it were UPER?
> So it would be Praying for all the saints…
> If so, why is this the case?  What caused it and how do I discern 
> that in
> other texts?
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> David Bielby
_____________

While I am not a great fan of the Louw-Nida lexicon, it does have its
uses.  In this case when you want to compare the usage of two words it
comes in handy.  In §§ 90.36-90.42 it deals with "Benefaction" and
includes both of these prepositions.

90.36 hUPER (with the genitive): a marker of a participant who is
benefited by an event or on whose behalf an event takes place—'for, on
behalf of, for the sake of.' hOW ESTIN PISTOS hUPER hUMWN DIAKONOW TOU
XRISTOU 'who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf' Col 1.7;
hINA hEIS ANQRWPOS APOQANHi hUPER TOU LAOU 'in order that one person
might die on behalf of the nation' Jn 11.50; DEHSEIS, PROSEUXAS,
ENTEUCEIS, EUXARISTIAS, hUPER PANTWN ANQRWPWN 'petitions, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving on behalf of all people' 1 Tm 2.1; TOU
DONTOS hEAUTON hUPER TWN hAMARTIWN hHMWN 'he who gave himself on behalf
of our sins' Ga 1.4. In a number of languages, one cannot speak of 'doing
something on behalf of sins'; only a person can be benefited by an event,
and therefore one must translate 'who gave himself on behalf of us who
had sinned' in Ga 1.4. See also 90.39.
90.39 PERI (with the genitive): a marker of events which are indirectly
involved in a beneficial activity—'on behalf of.' hOTI KAI XRISTOS hAPAC
PERI hAMRTIWN EPAQEN 'because Christ once for all suffered on behalf of
sins' 1 Pe 3.18. A strictly literal translation of this expression in 1
Pe 3.18 could be extremely misleading in some languages, since it would
imply that Christ’s suffering in some way benefited or enhanced sins.
Accordingly, it is necessary in a number of languages to translate as
'because Christ once for all suffered for the sake of people who had
sinned.' Note a similar use of hUPER in Ga 1.4 (see 90.36).
george
gfsomsel
___________


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