[B-Greek] Meaning of EIS in Galatians 6:8

revdougpickrel at aol.com revdougpickrel at aol.com
Tue Jun 29 14:07:30 EDT 2010



Hi Adrian and Iver,

Yes, it does make sense.  
When I was a child my mother sowed insignas "to" my jackets, and
patches  "to" my pants.  I guess it is proper to sow in the fields, and proper
to sow "to" something.

Doug 
Rev. Doug Pickrel, Litt.D. 
Tejas Valley 
San Antonio, Texas



-----Original Message-----
From: Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org>
To: bgreek <bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk>; b-greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tue, Jun 29, 2010 9:58 am
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Meaning of EIS in Galatians 6:8


----- Original Message ----- 
rom: <bgreek at global4.freeserve.co.uk>
o: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
ent: 29. juni 2010 14:26
ubject: [B-Greek] Meaning of EIS in Galatians 6:8

 When Paul writes:

 OTI hO SPEIRWN EIS THN SARKA hEAUTOU EK THS SARKOS QERISEI FQORAN
 hO DE SPEIRWN EIS TO PNEUMA EK TOU PNEUMATOS QERISEI ZWHN AIWNION

 SPEIRWN EIS is translated in most Bibles something like 'sows to'.

 But apart from this use in the Bible, I would not generally use the expression
 'sows to' in any other context, so I don't really know what this means.

 What would make more sense to me, given the context of the rest of the letter 
 would be if this
 could be translated:

 For the one who sows by means of the flesh (i.e. trying to be justified by the 
> law).....
 will reap destruction.... the one who sows by means of the Spirit (i.e. trying 
> to be justified by faith)
 ....will reap eternal life

 For this to be valid, it would be necessary to translate EIS as 'by means 
 of' - I had a quick
 look at BDAG this morning, and although there is a very broad scope for this 
 word, I am not
 convinced that it will stretch to 'by means of' or 'with the agent of' etc

 Is EIS ever used in this way in Greek?

 Many thanks

 Adrian Clark
Yes, you are right. "By means of" is not a possible translation of EIS.
If you look at the planting and harvesting metaphor as a whole, it makes good 
ense to "sow in the (field of) flesh" and then to harvest ruin/destruction from 
that kind of sowing. It is a short recap of Gal 5:19-21.
imilarly to "sow in the (field of) s/Spirit" and then harvest eternal life is 
he opposite and is a recap of Gal 5:22-25. The topic here is how to live rather 
than means of justification.
It is correct that "sows to" does not make sense in English, but you cannot 
xpect literal versions like the KJV, RSV and NIV to make sense of difficult 
assages. Try to look at some other translations to see the options for 
ranslating in a more meaningful way, especially the New Living Translation and 
he Contemporary English Version.
Iver Larsen 
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