[B-Greek] 1Co 15:10a Grace given to me vs. Grace has not beenwasted on me.
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Oct 6 03:17:37 EDT 2006
> 1Co 15:10a
>
> χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ εἰμι ὅ εἰμι,
> καὶ ἡ χάρις αὐτοῦ ἡ εἰς ἐμὲ οὐ κενὴ ἐγενήθη,
> ''By the grace of God, I am what I am,
> [and] His grace which was given to me has not been for nothing' (after BBE)
>
> Gk syntax question:
>
> I need some help on how to decide whether ἡ χάρις αὐτοῦ is modified by ἡ εἰς
> ἐμὲ, or has the following clause as appositive (with εἰς ἐμὲ used as
> adverbial within the clause). The former is taken by most of the English
> translations, except GW which I follow: I would render it
>
> 'By the grace of God, I am what I am --
> yes, His grace, the grace which has not been wasted on me."
Oun,
The majority is probably correct. It would be strange to connect KENOS with a preposition like EIS and then translate it
as "on". EIS is basically directional, meaning towards, including the possibility of purpose or result. It is also
questionable to translate by "wasted" when the normal sense of "in vain, with no effect, for nothing" makes good sense.
Paul uses similar expressions in other places, e.g.
1 Th 2:1 hOTI OU KENH GEGONEN (about his visit to them)
1 Th 3:5 KAI EIS KENON GENHTAI hO KOPOS hHMWN
EIS can occur before KENOS to indicate that the result would be in vain (result in nothing).
Since it makes perfect and simple sense to connect hH EIS EME with hH CARIS AUTOU, there is no good reason to bend over
backwards and look for an awkward reading of the text like the GW you quote (a different version of GW than the one I
have which says "But God's kindness made me what I am, and that kindness was not wasted on me.")
Iver Larsen
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