[B-Greek] Ephesians 1:13

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Sat Sep 30 02:47:50 EDT 2006


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry" <nebarry at verizon.net>
To: "'Nick Ashton'" <hisnibbs at ntlworld.com>; <Revdpickrel at wmconnect.com>
Cc: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Ephesians 1:13


>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-greek-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org]
>> On Behalf Of Nick Ashton
>> Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 4:27 AM
>> To: Revdpickrel at wmconnect.com
>> Cc: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>> Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Ephesians 1:13
>>
>> The Greek word translated "after" in KJV but "when" in some other
>> versions is "en" (Strongs 1722)
>>
>> Sorry if I have mis-used this site, I just wondered if the greek gives
>> further light on the passage not visible from the english.
>> I'll look into amending my signature.
>
> Nick, no, this is simply wrong.  What we have is an aorist participle (PISTEUSANTES), literally "having believed" (as, 
> somewhat surprisingly, the NIV literally translates).  The EN governs the relative pronoun hWi... Often the aorist 
> participle is used to express action taking place prior to the action of the verb in its clause, which would be part 
> of the justification of the translating it with the English preposition "after" in the KJV.  I'm not going to comment 
> extensively on the rendering, but I suspect that the KJV translators saw it as parallel to the first clause 
> (AKOUSANTES, "having believed") and saw the action of being sealed with the Spirit as subsequent to their belief, in a 
> grammatical sense.  Of course, it doesn't have to be read this way.  "Having answered, he said..."  Are these two 
> sequential actions?
>
> N.E. Barry Hofstetter

What Barry is saying is that the translations "after" or "when" are not based on the Greek preposition EN.
Rather, it is standard in Greek that the event expressed by an aorist participle takes place before the main verb 
expressed in aorist. There are 75 instances of this construction in Matthew alone, and the example quoted by Barry is 
the only exception to the rule. This exception is based on a carry-over from a Semitic expression "having answered, he 
said". Since this is a special Semitic idiom, it cannot be used to determine the normal sense of the Greek "aorist 
participle followed by aorist indicative".
So, from the Greek text alone, I would say that the translation "when" is probably misguided.

You can benefit from looking at the NET Bible at www.bible.org, where they do translate by "when", but also has a note 
on what the Greek says in a more literal rendering: "Grk "in whom also having believed."

Iver Larsen
Bible translation consultant 




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