[B-Greek] Ephesians 2:8 - ESTE SESWSMENOI
George F Somsel
gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Mar 23 17:20:26 EDT 2010
Others have noted that this is a periphrastic construction. Perhaps I can illustrate by use of Latin.
Latin verbs are generally given in their principal parts: ago, agere, egi, actus -- I go, to go, I went, gone. There are some other parts which might also be given but which generally are not. The gerundive form is combined with a form of "to be" to form an expression. One of the most famous of these is "Cartago delenda est" or "Carthage must be destroyed." Delenda is a future passive participle. If this were given in a disgustingly literal form it would be something like "Carthage is in a state of being about to be destroyed." Latin and Greek have many similarities.
george
gfsomsel
… search for truth, hear truth,
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth,
defend the truth till death.
- Jan Hus
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________________________________
From: "rhutchin at aol.com" <rhutchin at aol.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Tue, March 23, 2010 12:52:56 PM
Subject: [B-Greek] Ephesians 2:8 - ESTE SESWSMENOI
Ephesians 2:8 has the phrase, "...ESTE SESWSMENOI..." which KJV basically translates as "...ye are saved..." while many newer translations have "...you have been saved..."
ESTE appears to be a pretty straightforward present indicative verb that should mean "you are." I am not sure what SESWSMENOI is except that Robertson calls it the "perfect passive periphrastic indicative of sôzô" which means nothing to me.
The NET Bible translationnotes apparently say, “The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (‘youhave been saved’) and continuing results (‘you are saved’)” which, to me, doesn't seem to explain what the purpose of ESTE is.
Given all this, it appears to me that Paul is saying something like, "you were saved in the past and you are still saved right now."
So, can someone tell me what ESTE SESWSMENOI means all by itself as if you read it somewhere other than the Bible?
Roger Hutchinson
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