EPI in Phil 1:3

From: Lex Kuhta (lexkuhta@mail2.deltanet.com)
Date: Sat Jul 19 1997 - 11:05:24 EDT


<John wrote:
<
<In Paul's opening thanksgiving of Philippians he states that he gives
<thanks to God EPI PASH TH MNEIA UMWN. Is the EPI causual or temporal?
<Most (Hawthorne, Fee, NIV) take it to be temporal. My initial
<observations of the passage was that it was causal, explaining why Paul
<gave thanks. O'Brien takes it as a causal use of EPI, but he also
<views the UMWN as subjective rather than objective. If this is a
<causal use of EPI, is it necessary to view the UMWN as subjective?

I think it depends on who is doing the remembering. Is Paul remembering
them and getting happy? Or does Paul get happy when they remember him
and their donations arrive? Phil is sort of a fund raising letter.
Grammatically, is there a way to tell which case it is? I don't think
so. So I resort to context. Since KOINWNIA in 1:5 refers to financial
support, I favor the notion that Paul gets happy when their cash
arrives.

And so for me, hUMWN is a subjective genitive.



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