[B-Greek] the use of PROS in Ephesians 3:4

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue May 17 11:45:59 EDT 2011


On May 17, 2011, at 11:09 AM, Jordan Cooper wrote:

> Ephesians 3:3-4 "[ὅτι] κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν ἐγνωρίσθη μοι τὸ μυστήριον, καθὼς
> προέγραψα ἐν ὀλίγῳ, πρὸς ὃ δύνασθε ἀναγινώσκοντες νοῆσαι τὴν σύνεσίν μου ἐν
> τῷ μυστηρίῳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ"
> 
> "OTI KATA APOKALUYIV EGNWRISQH MOI TO MUSTHRIOV, KAQWS TROEGRAYA EV OLIGW,
> PROS O DUVASQE ANAGIVWSKONTES VOHSAI THN SUNESIV MOU EN TW MUSTHRIW TOU
> CRISTOU"
> 
> (sorry if the transliteration is off, i'm getting used to the B-Greek style)

The easiest way of doing this without laboriously doing it character by character and
wearing down your fingertips -- is to go the the "Hopperizer":
http://www.katabiblon.com/tools/perseus-hopperizer/
paste in the Unicode Greek text that you've copied, unclick "text contains
transliteration", select "B-Greek" in the "Convert to" popup menu, and click 
"Convert only." You get:
Ephesians 3:3-4 "[hOTI] KATA APOKALUYIN EGNWRISQH MOI TO MUSTHRION, 
KAQWS PROEGRAYA EN OLIGWi, PROS hO DUNASQE ANAGINWSKONTES 
NOHSAI THN SUNESIN MOU EN TWi MUSTHRIWi TOU CRISTOU"

> My question is about the use of PROS in verse 4, wondering if it should be
> used to indicate purpose, possibly with the infinitive NOHSAI to say "that
> according to revelation, it was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote
> before in brief, *in order that, *when reading, you are able to understand
> my insight in the mystery of Christ."
> 
> if this is not the use of PROS here, how else should it be used in this
> context?
> 
> and the english translation I used above is my own, so if you see any other
> fixing that needs to be done to it that would be helpful :)

Well, of course PROS can be Englished in a number of differenet ways,
depending on how you see it's function in context. But most fundamentally,
PROS always means "in face of" or "facing" or "ahead toward."

I would advise against translating and urge rather going directly for the
meaning of the Greek. But in the context of this verse, I guess I would English
the PROS hO as "in view of which."


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





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