[B-Greek] Phil 1:29 (yancywsmith)

yancywsmith yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Tue Jun 27 15:07:23 EDT 2006


I hope this is not to far of the mark of the use of the infinitives  
in Phil 1:29 in conjunction with ECARISQH.
I think "oblige" is a possibility to be considered here, but I  
personally like a more indirect approach to the translation, for the  
following reason:

To be given grace, in the Greco-Roman world, was certainly to be put  
under an obligation, yet the sense of obligation was the more  
powerful if not directly referenced. It would seem club footed for  
Paul to say explicitly at this juncture in the letter, "You are under  
obligation not only to believe in him but to suffer for him," even  
though he intended his audience to feel under such an obligation. It  
seems to me, however, that for them to feel a grudging obligation  
would not have been the response Paul hoped for. A good discussion of  
this intricate "grace-relationship" between patron and client is  
available in Cicero, De benefica/"On Benefits". So, it is more polite  
and theologically meaningful as well as rhetorically more convincing  
to say, "it has been granted to you by God's grace not only to  
believe, but to suffer" but the connotation of obligation is  
certainly, if indirectly, present. Yet it is also different from  
saying DEI hUMAS OU MONON EIS AUTON PISTEUEIN, ALLA KAI hUPER AUTOU  
PASCEIN in both perlocutionary force and meaning, because DEI puts in  
focus more directly the connotation of obligation. However, there  
certainly might be cases where CARIZOMAI serves to put such a  
connotation in focus.
	A similar, though not structurally identical, idiom is found in Luke  
1:72-73 "[QEOS] WMOSEN . . . TOU DOUNAI hHMIN . . . LATREUIN AUTWi."  
Lit. "He swore . . . to give us . . . to worship him," that is "He  
swore . . . that he would give us the opportunity to worship  
him." (N.B. I use "opportunity" here following the suggestion of Louw- 
Nida). Here the infinitive functions as a nominal, the direct object  
of the infinitive TOU DOUNAI, which in turn is the complement of  
WMOSEN. The sense of obligation in this case seems further off, but  
is implicit in the covenant relationship described.

Yancy Smith
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
5636 Wedgworth Rd.
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565


On Jun 27, 2006, at 1:13 PM, Muz wrote:

> I did some research using the Perseus site's Liddell and Scott  
> Lexicon, and
> one possible translation is "obliged".
>
> Might we engage "It has been obliged to you for Christ's sake, not  
> only to
> believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake" ?
>
> Muz
>
>
>
> I inserted "the opportunity" because of the naturalness of the phrase
> in English "to give some one the opportunity to do something." It
> isn't so natural to say, "to you has been granted to believe, etc."
> So, the grammatical reason for inserting it is a target language
> reason, not a Greek grammar reason. In Greek "to you can be granted
> to do something or the other" in English we usually give someone a
> chance/opportunity to do something or the other. I think the
> theological pay dirt is in the verb ECARISQH, in effect, God had
> granted them grace not only to believe but to suffer. BTW, I don't
> think "a grand opportunity has been given" is not a bad translation
> of ECARISQH is not too far off the mark.
>
> BTW, I garbled my previous answer, it should have read
>> Infinitives are used either adverbially (purpose, result or something
>> like that) or as nominals (subject, adjective, object, object of a
>> preposition). In this case, both infinitives TO ... PISTEUEIN and
>> TO ... PASCEIN are being used as nouns, specifically as appositonal
>> extensions of the subject of the passive verb ECARISQH, which is this
>> case is TO hUPER CRISTON. Neither of the infinitives is the object of
>> the prepositions EIS and hUPER, rather, AUTON and
> AUTOU
>> are the
>> objects of these prepositions. So, a pony translation would be: "To
>> you has been granted the [following thing] on behalf of Christ, [that
>> is] not only the in him to believe but also the on behalf of him to
>> suffer." Or better English: To you has been granted on behalf of
>> Christ, not only [the opportunity] to believe in him but also to
>> suffer for him."
> ---
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