[B-Greek] Colossians 1:23 - servant of what?

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed Jan 28 11:51:02 EST 2009


On Jan 28, 2009, at 10:28 AM, KingHerbCol at aol.com wrote:

> I have a question about the interpretation of the last phrase in  
> Colossians
> 1:23 which states:
>
> hOU EGENOMHN EGW PAULOS DIAKONOS.
>
> hOU is usually take to refer back to TOU EUAGGELIOU, but it comes
> immediately after TON OURANON.  Could hOU refer to heaven rather  
> than the  gospel?  The
> reason I ask is that earlier in the sentence hOU HKOUSATE also   
> refers back to
> TOU EUAGGELIOU which immediately precedes it.

We need the whole sentence
Col. 1:23 εἴ γε ἐπιμένετε τῇ πίστει  
τεθεμελιωμένοι καὶ ἑδραῖοι καὶ μὴ  
μετακινούμενοι ἀπὸ τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ  
εὐαγγελίου οὗ ἠκούσατε, τοῦ  
κηρυχθέντος ἐν πάσῃ κτίσει τῇ ὑπὸ  
τὸν οὐρανόν, οὗ ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ  
Παῦλος διάκονος. [EI GE EPIMENETE THi PISTEI  
TEQEMILIWMENOI KAI hEDRAIOI KAI MH METAKINOUMENOI APO THS ELPIDOS TOU  
EUAGGELIOU hOU HKOUSATE, TOU KHRUCQENTOS EN PASHi KTISEI THi hUPO TON  
OURANON, hOU EGENOMHN EGW PAULOS DIAKONOS]

But TON OURANON is really part of the prepositional phrase EN PASHi  
KTISEI THi hUPO TON OURANON, which itself qualifies EUAGGELIOU hOU  
HKOUSATE, TOU KHRUCQENTOS. I don't see how the antecedent of hOU  
preceding EGENOMHN could be anything other that TOU EUAGGELIOU.

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






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