[B-Greek] PANTA EN PASIN and PANTA KAI EN PASI

Carl W.Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Aug 30 05:30:25 EDT 2007


We really need to see the relevant texts within their contexts. I  
list below the passages that I've found; two of them have PANTA EN  
PASIN, one has PANTA KAI EN PASI. There are also a couple others that  
are similar but but quite of the same magnitude, or so it seems to  
me. Let me start with these latter, which I think that I'm closer to  
understanding.

a. Phil. 4:12
οἶδα καὶ ταπεινοῦσθαι, οἶδα καὶ  
περισσεύειν· ἐν παντὶ καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν  
μεμύημαι, καὶ χορτάζεσθαι καὶ  
πεινᾶν καὶ περισσεύειν καὶ  
ὑστερεῖσθαι·
OIDA KAI TAPEINOUSQAI, OIDA KAI PERISSEUEIN; EN PANTI KAI EN PASIN  
MEMUHMAI, KAI CORTAZESQAI KAI PEINAN KAI PERISSEUEIN KAI hUSTEREISQAI.

This one I'm pretty sure that I do understand. Here we have EN PANTI  
KAI EN PASIN construed with MEMUHMAI, a very of mystic initiation,  
used figuratively of full grasp of a very important secret: "I have,  
in each and every circumstance, come to an understanding (of  
contentment)" (BDAG: "in any and all circumstances I have learned the  
secret of being well fed and of going hungry"

b. [Eph. 4:6 	
εἷς θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ πάντων, ὁ ἐπὶ  
πάντων καὶ διὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν.
hEIS QEOS KAI PATHR PANTWN, hO EPI PANTWN KAI DIA PANTWN KAI EN PASIN.]

This is apparently part of a liturgical text; it goes easily into  
English as "one God and Father of all, the one who is over all and  
through all and in all" But I am less sure of exactly what the last  
two prepositional phrases actually mean, unless it may be "all- 
pervasive and omnipresent." Are PANTWN and PASIN here neuter plural  
and intended to indicate all creatures or every single item of the  
created universe? Perhaps so; my sense is that the phraseology here  
is intended to give expression to much the same sense as Psalm  
139:9-10 in the inimitable language of the KJV: "9 If I take the  
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;   
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."

I turn now to the texts containing the two formulations about which  
Kramer posed the question. Two of them involve textual questions:  
whether PANTA is preceded by the article TA; I'm not sure that  
resolution of the textual question is decisive for the meaning, which  
is difficult enough in itself to grasp -- for me, at least.

c. PANTA EN PASIN
1. 1Cor. 15:28
ὅταν δὲ ὑποταγῇ αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα,  
τότε [καὶ] αὐτὸς ὁ υἱὸς  
ὑποταγήσεται τῷ ὑποτάξαντι αὐτῷ  
τὰ πάντα, ἵνα ᾖ ὁ θεὸς [τὰ] πάντα  
ἐν πᾶσιν.
hOTAN DE hUPOTAGHi AUTWi TA PANTA, TOTE [KAI] AUTOS hO hUIOS  
hUPOTAGHSETAI TWi hUPOTAXANTI AUTWi TA PANTA, hINA Hi hO QEOS [TA]  
PANTA EN PASIN.

The verse evidently describes the final consummatory event in an  
eschatological sequence, when the supreme Orderer has "everything in  
its place and a place for everything." But what does the hINA clause  
actually mean? Is [TA] PANTA (a) a predicate nominative to hO QEOS  
with the copula Hi? or (b) an adverbial expression, meaning  
"completely, without exception." I think that (b) is more likely  
because I don't think that the author -- Paul -- is likely to be  
saying that the Father is IDENTICAL with all things. Rather, He is to  
be fully present in all things, or so it seems to me.

2. Eph. 1:23
... ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἥτις ἐστὶν τὸ σῶμα  
αὐτοῦ, τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐν  
πᾶσιν πληρουμένου.
... EKKLHSIA, hHTIS ESTIN TO SWMA AUTOU, TO PLHRWMA TOU TA PANTA EN  
PASIN PLHROUMENOU.

I cannot with confidence draw any satisfying understanding of this  
text. Eddie Mishoe has bombarded me belabored this verse in off-list  
correspondence with me repeatedly in recent months, focusing  
primarily upon the participle PLHROUMENOU which appears to be a  
middle-voice usage, agentive with TA PANTA as direct object (although  
PLHROW is otherwise transitive in either an active or passive sense):  
"the fullness of the one who fills all things in all things." I don't  
know what that means, if that's what the author intended, although  
part of my problem is that there's a mystical notion of PLHRWMA and  
PLHRWSIS that looms very large in the religious culture of the early  
centuries of our era, and that notion, so far as my mind works, is  
utterly arcane; I can't really fathom it. I'm somewhat amused at  
NET's bald-faced "the fullness of him who fills all in all" along  
with its notes suggesting that other possible understandings are --  
perhaps -- to be considered.

An idea that is gathering plausibility in my eyes now is that perhaps  
(a) PLHROUMENOU is really middle and intransitive in the sense of "be  
full" or "fill up/out" and (b) TA PANTA is not object of an agentive  
verb but rather is adverbial. If that's the case, then the phrase  
might be "the fullness of the one is full altogether in all things."  
IF that's right, it comes close, it seems to me, to saying the same  
thing as the phrase in 1 Cor 15:28.

d. PANTA KAI EN PASIN

Col. 3:10-11
  ... κατ᾿ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος  
αὐτόν,  ὅπου οὐκ ἔνι Ἕλλην καὶ  
Ἰουδαῖος, περιτομὴ καὶ ἀκροβυστία,  
βάρβαρος, Σκύθης, δοῦλος,  
ἐλεύθερος, ἀλλὰ [τὰ] πάντα καὶ ἐν  
πᾶσιν Χριστός.
... KAT' EIKONA TOU KTISANTOS AUTON, hOPOU OUK ENI hELLHN KAI  
IOUDAIOS, PERITOMH KAI AKROBUSTIA, BARBAROS, SKUQHS, DOULOS,  
ELEUQEROS, ALLA [TA] PANTA KAI EN PASIN CRISTOS.

This is pretty clearly related to the same notions finding expression  
in Gal 3:28, the newly baptized believer whose ethnic, social,  
gender, etc. distinctions from other human beings are no longer  
relevant because Christ is present in him/her. Here [TA] PANTA does  
seem to be predicate nominative to CRISTOS with an implicit ESTIN  
copula, but PANTA must here refer not to "all things" bur rather all- 
inclusively to the distinctions spelled out in the sequence, hELLHN  
KAI IOUDAIOS, PERITOMH KAI AKROBUSTIA, BARBAROS, SKUQHS, DOULOS,  
ELEUQEROS: "all those distinctions that mark off human beings from  
each other." The image (EIKWN) of the creator is one lacking any such  
distinctions as such, but it can stamp all human beings who are  
marked by any one of those distinctions. The image of the creator is,  
therefore, in the baptized believer as new creature, the presence of  
Christ in the believer in a "one size fits all" wrapper: while  
believers may still be Greek, or Judean, circumcised or not, free or  
slave, yet even so Christ is in them all. Others may understand this  
passage differently, but that's what I make of it. And I really think  
that the phrase PANTA KAI EN PASIN here bears little or no  
relationship to the phrase PANTA EN PASIN in (c) beyond being usages  
of the adjective PAS.


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)

On Aug 29, 2007, at 12:37 PM, kramer kramer wrote:

> B-Greekers,
>
>   Are these two phrases structurally and functionally identical?   
> Does the addition of two connectives in PANTA KAI EN PASI add a  
> meaning that is not conveyed by PANTA EN PASIN?
>
>   Thanks,
>
>   Kramer
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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