[B-Greek] Philemon 6

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Mon May 30 04:54:02 EDT 2011


There was a question about this challenging verse on Dec 18, 1998 with one 
response on Dec 21. But it has a number of challenges, so I thought it would be 
worthwhile picking it up. All English versions are struggling. The NIV 2011 
redid the previous rendering rather drastically, but IMO without getting it 
right.

ὅπως ἡ κοινωνία τῆς πίστεώς σου ἐνεργὴς γένηται ἐν ἐπιγνώσει παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ τοῦ 
ἐν ἡμῖν εἰς Χριστόν
hOPWS hH KOINWNIA THS PISTEWS SOU ENERGHS GENHTAI EN EPIGNWSEI PANTOS AGAQOU TOU 
EN hHMIN EIS CRISTON

There are some textual variations, the major one whether it is EN hHMIN or EN 
hUMIN. The textual evidence is fairly evenly divided, but it does not make any 
significant difference to the meaning. Some mss have Jesus after Christ at the 
end, but again, that does not change the meaning.

First, hOPWS. This conjunction normally refers to purpose or goal and may be 
rendered as "with a view to". It probably relates back to "my prayers" in verse 
4, and many English versions make that explicit by adding "I pray that..." It 
does not introduce the direct content of the prayer, but more the gist of it, 
the main goal of his prayers for Philemon and the local saints/believers whom 
Philemon are commending for loving in v. 5.

Second, we have a nuclear clause followed by two prepositional phrases where the 
first one is complex with another embedded prepositional phrase. The nuclear 
clause is ἡ κοινωνία τῆς πίστεώς σου ἐνεργὴς γένηται hH KOINWNIA THS PISTEWS SOU 
ENERGHS GENHTAI. Paul is praying that the KOINWNIA may become ENERGHS. Vulgate 
had fiat evidens, Tyndale said fruitful, Luther powerful (kraftig werde). BDAG 
has "effective, active, powerful". LSJ mentions that it is used to describe 
medicines as strong, powerful. So far, we don't have too much of a problem. Paul 
prays that this KOINWNIA may become (more) powerful or strong.

What is the meaning of KOINWNIA in the NT? I would say it is the status and 
activities of believers who have the strong bond of a common faith in Jesus. 
This feeling of commonality may express itself in different ways. The believers 
may come together to encourage one another and strengthen that bond (Acts 2:42). 
They may express their feeling of being in a community together by collecting 
money for fellow believers in need (Rom 15:26; 2 Cor 8:4, 9:13). Sometimes one 
of the key bonds that ties them together is described by a genitive (1 Cor 1:9 - 
fellowship of Jesus Christ, our Lord; 1 Cor 10:16 - fellowship of the blood of 
Christ, the body of Christ; 2 Cor 13:13; Phil 2:1 - fellowship of the Holy 
Spirit; Php 3:10 - fellowship of the sufferings of Jesus). Sometimes, the people 
that experience this commonality and bond are described as in Gal 2:9 where the 
common ministry is affirmed between Paul and Barnabas on one side and the other 
apostles on the other side. In 1 John we have this fellowship with somebody 
(META) expressed several times. For Philemon, NLT zeroed in on the generosity 
aspect, but I do not think that is correct in this context. Vulgate had 
communicatio. This was picked up by KJV as "communication". I don't know what 
this word meant 400 years ago, but KOINWNIA certainly does not mean 
"communication" in English today. I suppose the KJV tried to express being in a 
community together, or they simply followed the Vulgate. NIV1984 and several 
other English versions talk about "sharing your faith", and that is close to the 
modern "communication", but it is not an attested meaning of KOINWNIA as far as 
I know. This was dropped in the revised NIV.

How is the genitive ἡ κοινωνία τῆς πίστεώς σου hH KOINWNIA THS PISTEWS SOU to be 
understood? The SOU must refer to Philemon. But is it "the fellowship of his 
faith" or is it "his fellowship of faith"? This is ambiguous. My preference is 
to see the THS PISTEWS genitive as a description of the bond that ties the 
community together, a faith-fellowship or a fellowship centred around a common 
faith in Jesus. Philemon would probably be a part of other social or business 
fellowships, but this one is a faith fellowship. The SOU would then indicate 
Philemon's relationship to that faith-fellowship. It is his fellowship, not 
Paul's, so I do not think it is matter of the fellowship between Paul and 
Philemon. It is Philemon's, not in the sense that he owns it, but in the sense 
that he is part of it and may even have been the instigator of that 
faith-fellowship. It is likely that there was a group of believers whom Philemon 
took care of and they may have met in his house, since he was a well-to-do man. 
Verse 5 talks about Philemon's love for the local believers, the saints, and v. 
7 about how he has refreshed or brought to a position of rest (ANAPAUW - 
ἀναπαύω). Although KOINWNIA primarily refers to the activity of having 
fellowship, it cannot be separated from the believers who engage in that 
activity. It is the fellowship that should become powerful, but that is tied to 
Philemon (and probably also the local believers) becoming powerful in what they 
do. NIV2011 says "your partnership with us in the faith." My main problem with 
that is the addition of "with us" which is not in the text. The Danish 
authorized version of 1948 said in an English back translation: "the fellowship 
around/pertaining to the faith that you are part of."

How is this KOINWNIA to become powerful? By means of a full/complete 
understanding/recognition - EN EPIGNWSEI PANTOS AGAQOU TOU EN hHMIN - ἐν 
ἐπιγνώσει παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν. The object of EPIGNWSIS would be: every 
good thing which is in us (or you). In other words, you people who have this 
fellowship of faith need to understand your potential for good, recognize fully 
every good thing that God has given you (to serve him). Paul prays for the 
believers in terms of this full understanding of truth, God and his will/plans. 
This will help them to be powerful/effective as they live out the fellowship 
they have that is centred around their common faith. There is a similar prayer 
in 2 Thess 1:11:
προσευχόμεθα πάντοτε περὶ ὑμῶν, ἵνα ... πληρώσῃ πᾶσαν εὐδοκίαν ἀγαθωσύνης καὶ 
ἔργον πίστεως ἐν δυνάμει
PROSEUCOMEQA PANTOTE PERI hUMWN, hINA...PLHRWSHi PASAN EUDOKIAN AGAQWSUNHS KAI 
ERGON PISTEWS EN DUNAMEI - we always pray for you-all that ... he (God) may 
(ful)fill every intention/desire for goodness and a powerful work of faith.

Finally, we have EIS CRISTON εἰς Χριστόν - towards Christ. The good things we 
(or they) have, as given by God, need to be used in the direction of Christ, to 
glorify him. This is somewhat parallel to 2 Thess 1:10. The NET has a good note 
at Philemon 6, but I cannot agree with them translating EIS CRISTON as if it had 
been EN CRISTWi. It is not "in Christ", but "towards Christ". I suppose the "in 
Christ" is simply carried over into so many English versions from the KJV which 
apparently got it from the Vulgate "in Christo Iesu". The Bishop's NT had 
"towarde" and Darby "towards."

Any comments? It has many challenges, so I am not expecting much agreement.

Iver Larsen 



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