[B-Greek] Ephesians 2:3

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Wed Mar 24 12:41:38 EDT 2010


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <rhutchin at aol.com>
To: <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>; <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 23. marts 2010 03:26
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Ephesians 2:3


>
> OK, I see the basic rationale.  Son of iniquity means a bad guy.
>
> Thus, children of wrath can mean the objects of God's wrath.  The lost are the 
> objects of God's wrath.  I can see that.  So, v 4, But God...even when we were 
> the objects of His wrath...
>
> But, would we say that being the object of God's wrath is, "By nature."  It 
> appears to me that FUSEI could just as easily extend the description of the 
> lost that we read earlier in this verse perhaps meaning that their nature is 
> that of wrath (or hate) as opposed to love (per the nature of God).  Then, v 
> 4, But God...even when we hated Him...  As son of iniquity refers to a person 
> ruled by sin, could not children of wrath refer to people ruled by wrath 
> (wrath is their nature)?  Is a literal rendering necessarily misleading in 
> this case?
>
> Can a grammatical analysis sort this out or does it end up being one person's 
> exegetical position against another's?
>
> Roger Hutchinson

An analysis of the semantic range of the word ORGH in relation to QUMOS might 
help. Richard Trench suggests that in secular Greek QUMOS is "more of the 
turbulent commotion, the boiling agitation of feelings (of anger)" while ORGH is 
"more of an abiding and settled habit of mind with the purpose of revenge."

Another complementary avenue is to look at how Paul uses the word ORGH. It is 
common in Romans (12 times), and it always in that book refers to God's 
righteous anger and consequent punishment. I would therefore suggest that the 
wrath mentioned here is also most likely the wrath/punishment from God that is 
awaiting the "sons of disobedience." (v. 2).

A further avenue is to consider the clear contrast to the mercy of God in the 
next verse directed to the "sons of obedience". This suggests that the ORGH here 
is indeed the wrath of God.

A literal rendering is the easy way out in that the translators push the 
necessary research to the reader, and the majority of readers are unable or 
unwilling to do that research and therefore in reality will be misled or at 
least greatly puzzled.

Iver Larsen 




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