[B-Greek] Eph. 1:12 EIS TO EINAI hHMAS ...TOUS PROHLPIKOTAS EN TWi CRISTWi

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue May 16 14:33:23 EDT 2006


On May 16, 2006, at 1:51 PM, Webb wrote:

> EIS TO EINAI hHMAS EIS EPAINON DOXHS AUTOU TOUS PROHLPIKOTAS EN TWi  
> CRISTWi
>
> That way, our being the first to trust in Christ will be for the  
> honor of
> God's glory.
>
> Is this a possible way of taking the relationship between the EINAI  
> and
> PROHLPIKOTAS?

Well, it's certainly a way of putting highly-contorted Greek into a  
highly-contorted English! Of course, the entire string of clauslets  
in the sequence Eph 1:3-14 is extraordinary and (I think)  
extraordinarily difficult in its articulation (or non-articulation).  
This string has always seemed to me somewhat like the LEXIS EIROMENH  
or "strung style" of Homeric discourse, wherein units loosely  
attached to each other like beads on a string contribute to a  
totality that is somehow intelligible. Here in the opening string of  
Ephesians, it's often seemed to me that we have something like  
loosely-strung subject-and-predicate clauslets that are half  
petitions and half catechetical elements such as we have heard  
formulated in an oral prayer where the speaker hasn't really given  
much thought in advance to where the sentence is supposed to end.

It is unclear whether to initial EIS TO + inf. is meant to express  
purpose or result, as either would possibly relate to the ...  
PROORISQENTES KATA PROQESIN ... of the preceding clauslet. I suppose  
"that way" is intended to preserve the ambiguity -- as well as the  
fragile linkage of this clauslet to that preceding it.

But -- the phrase EIS EPAINON DOXHS AUTOU is not so easily disposed  
of, I think. Your phrasing suggests that this phrase is the climax of  
the larger clause, and I'm not sure that it is; you also seem to  
suggest that hHMAS ... TOUS PROHLPIKOTAS EN TWi CRISTWi is the  
subject of EINAI and EIS EPAINON DOXHS AUTOU is predicative with  
EINAI. I won't say that could NOT be the case (I don't know that one  
could positively rule out any of a variety of ways of construing the  
elements here), but I really think that here hHMAS is the subject of  
EINAI and TOUS PROHLPIKOTAS EN TWi CRISTWi is the predicate phrase --  
and that EIS EPAINON DOXHS AUTOU is an adverbial phrase that is  
commonly appended to catechetical or liturgical assertions about  
God's action, a sort of "Alleluia" or "Hallelujah" attendant upon  
each item in a list of God's mighty works.

The upshot: if I were trying to reduce this verse to a single English  
sentence, I think I'd render it rather as "and so we have come to  
have hope in advance in Christ, praise be to His Glory!"

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





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