[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/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list