[B-Greek] Ephesians 2:1 -- ontas

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Sun Oct 31 06:51:53 EDT 2010


On Oct 30, 2010, at 11:35 PM, Roger Greene wrote:
> Eph 2:1 -- Καὶ ὑμᾶς ὄντας νεκρούς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν,
> 
> KAI hUMAS ONTAS NEKROUS TOIS PARAPTWMASIN KAI TAIS hHAMARTIAIS hUMWN
> 
> 
> 
> The ὄντας is present active participle:
> 
> And you being dead to the trespasses and to the sins of you…
> 
> 
> 
> Why is it translated in virtually all the versions as: 
> 
> “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins”

You really need to look at the longer sequence extending from verses 1-7, a rather unwieldy
whole, any way one chooses to explain it. The sequence is what is ordinarily termed an 
anacoluthon, which is to say: a sentence that got started out on the wrong track and was then
started over without deleting the false start. This is something we do not infrequently in
conversation but less frequently in writing. In this instance translators have often decided
to convey the sense of the opening verse as if it were a complete sentence, even if it is
not that in the Greek.

This sequence has been much discussed in previous discussions in this forum; one of the
more recent ones ran from July 29-31, 2009, beginning with a query by Roger Hutchinson
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2009-July/049945.html
and concluding with a nice summation and perspective on the issues by Iver Larsen:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2009-July/049975.html
As I said, there have been several threads on this anacoluthon, but this one that is
readily found in our archives should be sufficient.

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






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