Ephesians 4.1

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tghagen
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Joined: April 16th, 2025, 8:20 am

Ephesians 4.1

Post by tghagen »

Hello everyone,
I have a question about Ephesians 4.1.

Παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ ὁ δέσμιος ἐν κυρίῳ ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε.
"I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you therefore to walk worthy of the calling wherewith you have been called."

My question concerns the phrase: "ἐγὼ ὁ δέσμιος ἐν κυρίῳ"

My exposure to Greek so far has been limited to analyzing single verses, not to reading extended texts. But even with this very scanty acquaintance with the language, this phrase seemed particularly unusual as it interrupts the flow of the syntax from "ὑμᾶς" to "ἀξίως". The injection of this phrase in this position seems to place an enormous emphasis on the fact of Paul's being a prisoner of the Lord. My question is whether that is correct.

Thank you.
Jonathan Robie
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Re: Ephesians 4.1

Post by Jonathan Robie »

You are reading this correctly. I might suggest changing your translation accordingly.

Παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ ὁ δέσμιος ἐν κυρίῳ ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε.
I exhort you then - I, the prisoner in the Lord - to walk worthy of the calling to which you were called.

This is especially emphatic because it interrupts the normal thought, the subject ἐγὼ does not need to be stated but it is, and it is fronted. This is about as marked as it gets.
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Eeli Kaikkonen
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Re: Ephesians 4.1

Post by Eeli Kaikkonen »

I thought for a couple of days what to answer and Jonathan's answer prompted me to finally do it. I don't outright agree with Jonathan, but don't totally disagree either. What you say, "this phrase seemed particularly unusual as it interrupts the flow of the syntax", isn't correct. It's not particularly unusual. The Koine constituent order is flexible and even though this isn't the most straightforward, it's not in my opinion particularly unusual. Actually it's quite usual that the theoretically most straightforward syntax is interrupted. Also I don't see "enormous emphasis" or it being "especially emphatic".

However, the phrase itself is not needed grammatically, syntactically or semantically in the context. It has been added for some special purpose, and I can agree that the location feels somewhat "emphatic". But what makes it stand out is the content because it adds something which, as I said, wasn't needed at all and therefore stands out. It must be related in Paul's purposes in the larger context. See 3:1 from where the idea is repeated. It must be interpreted in this context but that doesn't need Greek, it can be handled in English.

As for the ἐγὼ, I don't see it being fronted in itself because it's part of the longer phrase where it can't be anywhere else relatively. Also it must exist in that phrase, the phrase wouldn't work well without it. No choice, no special meaning inside that phrase.

The paraphrase by Jonathan looks good, I would have done it the same way.
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