[B-Greek] hEN DE (Phil 3:13)
Webb
webb at selftest.net
Mon Dec 11 22:38:24 EST 2006
ADELFOI, EGW EMAUTON OU [some mss: OUPW] LOGIZOMAI KATEILHFENAI, hEN DE, TA
MEN OPISW EPILANTHANOMENOS, TOIS DE EMPROSQEN EPEKTEINOMENOUS...
The great majority of translations I have consulted interpret hEN DE as "But
one thing I do". But my first reaction was to take flow of the thought to
be, "I don't reckon X, but one thing I DO reckon is...". The result (closer
to Moffatt, NJB, NEB, Williams, Phillips) might look like:
Brothers and sisters, I don't determine myself to have reached it [some mss:
reached it yet]. But I have determined one thing: I'm forgetting what's
behind me, and reaching out for what's in front of me.
Or, in less literal and concordant but more understandable English:
Brothers and sisters, I don't regard myself as having gotten there [some
mss: gotten there yet]. But I do know one thing: I'm forgetting what's
behind me, and reaching out for what's in front of me.
So hEN is read as the object of the implied verb LOGIZOMAI, and LOGIZOMAI
shifts from a reckoning of fact in the first instance to a reckoning of an
appropriate course of action or attitude in the second, implicit, instance.
Is there anything impossible about this? Anything improbable?
Webb Mealy
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