From: Mike Sangrey (msangrey@BlueFeltHat.org)
Date: Mon Mar 26 2001 - 11:39:20 EST
Keith Thompson <keitht@kneptune.demon.co.uk> said:
> Can I assume from the lack of responses that people agree with my
> view that hHTIS ESTIN does not refer to TAIS QLIYESIN? I realise that
> the grammar in the New Testament is not always perfect, for example
> I'm translating the book of James and I came across James 3:4
> (IDOU), KAI TA PLOIA ... METAGETAI hUPO ELACISTOU PHDALIOU ... where
> singular METAGETAI refers to plural PLOIA. But do people reckon that
> most translations have got it wrong at Ephesians 3:13? I notice the AV
> has 'which is' and the RV has 'which are', is there perhaps a
> difference in the texts they used?
I've deleted your previous message, so I'll just simply reply to this
with what I think you are getting at.
You know, I sometimes think we're too picky.
James 3:4
IDOU KAI TA PLOIA, THLIKAUTA ONTA KAI hUPO ANEMWN SKLHRWN ELAUNOMENA,
METAGETAI hUPO ELACISTOU PHDALIOU hOPOU hH hORMH TOU EUQUNONTOS BOULETAI
James refers to a pile of ships being blown around the sea, but his
topic is the tongue (singular). So it is quite natural, and in fact
gives the reader a linguistic clue, when he uses METAGETAI (singular).
I think the original reader would have noticed the singularity, too,
and would have quite naturally accepted James singling out a single
ship for discussion. It all makes sense as soon as James gets to
PHDALIOU. Now, we English speakers stumble over that. We want James
to make explicit his referents. But it's linguistically wrong to read
English grammar back onto the Greek text--something extremely easy to
do.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you're the type of person who
believes in a closed system of grammatical rules and good authors stay
within the lines, then, sure, this is awkward. However, if you
believe authors communicate in the language of people, a language
which is rather fluid and partially open ended, then the above flows
quite happily. The ironic thing is this: the fuzziness of the
apparent lack of number agreement helps to more precisely focus the
reader (just like some split infinitives do <chuckle>) on the topic.
Eph 3:13
DIO AITOUMAI MH EGKAKEIN EN TAIS QLIYESIN MOU hUPER hUMWN, hHTIS ESTIN
DOCA hUMWN
I take this in much the same way: "This glory is your glory." And the
`glory' refers back to the topic of the previous clause. In fact, my
opinion is it refers back to the topic of 3:2-12. Paul's suffering,
on the face of things, appears as something not quite right. Paul
says, "No, you got it wrong. This is glory. My whole vocation, the
administration of God's grace (THN OIKONOMIAN THS CARITOS TOU QEOU)
was given me for you (DOQEISHS MOI EIS hUMAS) (3:2). This whole
administration (OIKONOMIA) is a glorious thing. And it's your glory,
too." Paul's whole focus is on their benefit. They need to see that
sucking in the suffering for other's benefit, especially for the
Messiah, creates unity and THAT type of unity is a good thing (cf
4:1ff).
So, the singularity appears somewhat jolting, but that is because our
English ears want the connections all nice and neat and tidy. When
you realize the whole paragraph (from 3:2 to 3:13) is Paul talking
about his vocation, then to finish the paragraph with "This glory is
your glory," well, it's a beautiful and terse capstone. Terse
statements are meant to jolt us; Greek just handles them a little
differently than we do.
This also fits quite nicely with the parenthetical way in which the
section (3:2-21) was introduced. "I'm a prisoner..., now wait a
minute, perhaps you think that is a bad thing, well, let me tell ya
something. In order for you to understand how unity works, you've got
to get that idea outta your head."
That's about as far as I am going to push this. I think sometimes
when we focus on the Greek we become micro-optic. A fluent
speaker/hearer doesn't do that. It's important for students (and
scholars) of the GNT to step back sometimes and get the flow. These
questions regarding number and gender (typically neuter) agreement are
the type of questions that should force us to ask, and seek to answer,
these much larger textual questions.
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