[B-Greek] Ephesians 1:1

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Sep 29 09:23:26 EDT 2009


On Sep 29, 2009, at 7:54 AM, rhutchin at aol.com wrote:

> Ephesians 1:1
>
> PAULOS...TOIS hAGIOIS TOIS OUSIN EN EFESW KAI PISTOIS EN CRISTW.
>
> KJV translates as: Paul...to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to  
> the faithful in Christ Jesus:...
> NIV translates as:? Paul...To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in  
> Christ Jesus:...

If you find the versions messy, it's because the text they're working  
with is messy.

> 1.? Does the absence of the article before PISTOIS cause a problem  
> that leads to the different translations?? Do the KJV translators  
> assume an implicit TOIS before PISTOIS?? Are both translations  
> possible?

They're doing the best they can with a messy text. I think that  
PISTOIS EN CRISTWi could be paired with OUSIN EN EFESWi, "the ones who  
are at Ephesus and (are) faithful in Christ." But at best it's  
awkward, almost as if EN EFESWi and EN CRISTWi are two different  
locative expressions.
>
> 2.? What role does the second TOIS play in TOIS hAGIOIS TOIS?? Might  
> we read this as, "To the saints, the ones..."

Yes. This is a not at all uncommon collocation of an attributive  
phrase introduced by an article in agreement with its head noun, the  
substantive TOIS hAGIOIS. What's odd is the way that attributive  
phrase as a whole is constructed, as noted above.

> 3.? Could TOIS OUSIN EN EFESW be translated at the end of the  
> sentence making it "...to the saints and faithful, the ones in  
> Ephesus"?? This would be similar to Colossians 1:2 - TOIS EN  
> KOLOSSAIS hAGIOIS KAI PISTOIS...

It would -- and perhaps is intended to be so, but the phrase in  
Colossians seems a better-constructed Greek phrase.

In the critical NA27/UBS4 text EN EFESWi is bracketed as problematic.  
I won't cite Metzger's note on it, but you should look at Metzger or  
at NET's note on this verse. EN EFESWi is not in some old MSS; on the  
other hand, TOIS OUSIN is not very meaningful without some  
complementary term ("to the ones who are ... "). It's been suggested  
that this was orginally an "encyclical" letter and that the slot where  
EN EFESWi is was a blank to be filled in with the name of a city where  
there was a congregation to which the letter is addressed.

In sum, verse one of Ephesians 1 is rather clumsy Greek (as I'm  
inclined to think that much of Ephesians 1 is clumsy Greek owing to  
awkward articulation of clauses.

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






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