[B-Greek] Ephesians 1:3-4

self822 at selftest.net self822 at selftest.net
Fri Jul 28 13:57:21 EDT 2006


I wonder if there are three other possibilities:

1. To take KAQWS to mean "as" in the rather mild sense of "because", as in
the following (substandard, but typical) example from English:

I never seem to catch my breath, as I'm constantly torn between one task
and another.

Taking it that way, it would convey the idea that God, who has blessed us
(v. 3) is to be blessed too (also v. 3), as [in a somewhat slippery way
meaning "because"] he has done all these following things for us.

2. To take KAQWS as introducing a string of specific kinds of blessing (vv.
4-10 or even beyond) that illustrate that it is appropriate that we should
bless God even as God has blessed us in Christ. This action (our blessing
of God) appropriately matches that action (the catalogue of God's actions
on our part through Christ, vv. 4ff.). 

3. To take KAQWS as relating God's election of us (top of v. 4) to God's
predestination of us (top of v. 5), indicating that these two match each
other: Just as God elected us, so God predestined us (thus closely
parallelling Rom. 8:29). No specific relationship is being asserted--just
that these two actions of God go together and "match" each other.

Webb Mealy 


Original Message:
-----------------
From: Joe Hightower boeinguy2 at yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:47:05 -0700 (PDT)
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [B-Greek] Ephesians 1:3-4


I am wrestling with an issue involving the word kathos (KAQWS for those who
use the B-Greek system). There are several definitions for this including
'just as', according to' or 'basis', which can be applied. Wallace
describes the use as either showing correlation or cause. BAGD uses this as
an example of cause. 

Given these definitions, the idea of election is related to the idea of
blessing as: 

1) we are blessed in the same way that we are chosen 
2) we are blessed based on the fact that we are chosen 
3) we are blessed based according to the fact that we are chosen 

Now for the issue. Several commentators (Hoehner, O'Brien, Hendrikson, and
Bob Diffenbaugh's write up at Bible .org) take the election to be not just
related to the blessing but one of the blessings. Two commentators (Salmond
and Martin-Lloyd Jones) take the idea to be the basis of the blessing,
making the blessings undefined in this passage. 

I am stumped. It seems that the 'plain reading' makes the blessing
dependent on the election, but to be undefined in this context. How do
those who take the other position justify seeing both cause of and
definition of in the same phrase? 

Help Please!
 
Joe Hightower
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