[B-Greek] Word order in 2 Cor 5:19
Kimmo Huovila
kimmo.huovila at helsinki.fi
Wed May 9 08:37:02 EDT 2007
On Tuesday 08 May 2007, Elizabeth Kline wrote:
>
> On May 7, 2007, at 11:18 AM, Kimmo Huovila wrote:
>
> > The word order in 2 Cor 5:19 is interesting.
> >
> > How natural do you think the word order would be in an answer to these
> > questions? To what questions would the word order be most natural?
> >
> > TI ESTI H DIAKONIA THS KATALLAGHS?
> > TI EPOIEI hO QEOS EN CRISTWi?
> >
> > QEOS HN EN CRISTWi KOSMON KATALLASSWN hEAUTWi, MH LOGIZOMENOS
> > AUTOIS TA
> > PARAPTWMATA AUTWN KAI QEMENOS EN hHMIN TON LOGON THS KATALLAGHS.
>
>
> 2COR. 5:18 TA DE PANTA EK TOU QEOU TOU KATALLAXANTOS hHMAS hEAUTWi
> DIA CRISTOU KAI DONTOS hHMIN THN DIAKONIAN THS KATALLAGHS, 19 hWS
> hOTI QEOS HN EN CRISTWi KOSMON KATALLASSWN hEAUTWi, MH LOGIZOMENOS
> AUTOIS TA PARAPTWMATA AUTWN KAI QEMENOS EN hHMIN TON LOGON THS
> KATALLAGHS.
>
> A preliminary thought, I am still working on this one, it dosen't
> seem that v19 answers TI ESTI H DIAKONIA THS KATALLAGHS;. I would
> read hWS hOTI QEOS HN EN CRISTWi KOSMON KATALLASSWN hEAUTWi, MH
> LOGIZOMENOS AUTOIS TA PARAPTWMATA AUTWN as an expansion or an
> explantion of EK TOU QEOU TOU KATALLAXANTOS hHMAS hEAUTWi DIA
> CRISTOU. There are other possibilties of course.
>
So would your suggestion be:
TI ESTIN H KATALLAGE (hHMWN) DIA CRISTOU?
Perhaps the hHMWN should be left out of the question, as the object of
reconciliation changes in the passage.
There is some parallelism, as you noted, but also an aspectual contrast. "We"
were reconciled in the perfective, but "the world" in the imperfective, and
because of the imperfective aspect there is a need for a perfective (aorist)
imperative for "you" to be reconciled. Not all commentators see the aspect in
this way, but this seems to me to be the most straighforward aspectual
interpretation.
If I am right with this, the hWS hOTI clause could still be an expansion or an
explanation of some parts of the sentence, but with a contrast of object and
aspect. Finding out the precise meaning of hWS hOTI might shed some light on
this. I have not studied it in detail, but it seems that many commentators
and lexica are somewhat insecure about its precise meaning.
> The placement of KAI QEMENOS EN hHMIN TON LOGON THS KATALLAGHS at the
> end is parallel to the placement of KAI DONTOS hHMIN THN DIAKONIAN
> THS KATALLAGHS,
Good point.
> first comes the activity of QEOS reconciling then
> DONTOS hHMIN THN DIAKONIAN THS KATALLAGHS ... QEMENOS EN hHMIN TON
> LOGON THS KATALLAGHS. The primary thrust of 19a is to explain what he
> means by QEOS reconciling.
>
> This is just a first cut at this. I am no expert on Paul.
Thanks. How well would you consider "TI EPOIEI hO QEOS EN CRISTWi?" fits the
word order?
Kimmo Huovila
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