[B-Greek] Philemon 6
=)
p1234567891 at gmail.com
Tue May 31 02:23:38 EDT 2011
Dear all,
What about this: [Phlm 1:6] "OPWS H KOINWNIA THS PISTEWS SOU ENERGHS GENHTAI
EN EPIGNWSEI PANTOS AGAQOU TOU EN HMIN EIS CRISTON" = "such that the
communion (sharing) of your faith might come to be operative in recognition
of every good [thing] in us for Christ"?
I believe the original conveys the sense of "the communion/sharing
pertaining to your faith" instead of "your faith-communion/sharing".
Otherwise the author could have written "SOU H KOINWNIA THS PISTEWS" to
prevent the ambiguity. 1 Pet 1:9 also has "TO TELOS THS PISTEWS UMWN" which
is clearly "the end of your faith (the end pertaining to your faith)".
Also, would "for Christ" be acceptable to convey "EIS CRISTON"? I also
understood it as "when you recognise every good thing in us which is for
Christ", and I felt that "for Christ" conveys the meaning better than
"towards Christ" since that would be closer to "PROS CRISTON".
What do you think?
Regards,
David Lim
On 30 May 2011 16:54, Iver Larsen <iver_larsen at sil.org> wrote:
> 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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