[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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