[B-Greek] Thread closed: when syntax doesn't get you there "context" might -- Eph 3:15
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Mar 30 05:32:36 EDT 2010
I'm afraid that this discussion has crossed over the line into the area of hermeneutical assumptions. In terms of list protocol, that is a no-no. Those who wish to discuss this further should follow the lead of Rod Rogers: "Take it off the list."
Carl W. Conrad
Co-Chair, B-Greek List
On Mar 30, 2010, at 2:30 AM, yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net wrote:
> Text:
> Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται,
> TOUTOU CARIN KAMTW TA GONATA MOU PROS TON PATERA, EX hOU PASA PATRIA EN OURANOIS KAI EPI GHS ONOMAZETAI
>
> Since we have gone about as far as grammar will allow with Ephesians 4:9 (not all the way to a meaning, just a range of possible meanings), perhaps another example of the limits of grammar is appropriate. The NRSV and the TNIV of Ephesians 3:14-15 reads, “For this reason I kneel/bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes/derives its name.” The typical take on this is that the writer is arguing that every natural kinship
> group on earth deriving from a father has the paternal function of God in heaven as its source. Several commentators assert “normal Greek usage” demands the translation “every family,” here, while admitting that in Ephesians 2:21 the same grammatical structure, πᾶσα οἰκοδομὴ PASA OIKODOMH, should be translated “the whole building.” [A cursory examination of the grammatical footnotes in the commentaries at 2:21 reveals that πᾶσα πατριά PASA PATRIA and πᾶσα οἰκοδομή PASA OIKODOMH are grammatically ambiguous, Maximilian Zerwick and Joseph Smith, Biblical Greek (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1963), 61-62.190 for Hellenistic examples of anarthrous πᾶς with the meaning “[the] whole [of].” and see Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians (WBC 42; Thomas Nelson, 1990), 156, who, however does not allow ambiguity at 3:15! Harold W Hoehner, Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 408 gives other references.] As students of Hellenistic and New Testament Greek may be aware classical, Attic Greek standards do not always apply. For example, πᾶς οἶκος Ἰσραήλ is “the whole house of Israel.” The strongest argument scholars make against the translation “whole family,” however, is that the notion of a “whole family in heaven and on earth” seems non-sensical to them. But it is non-sensical because scholars have not bothered to connect Ephesians to the household context of its readers where temple imagery reigned supreme in describing family religion and the sanctity of the home. There also family was considered to be multigenerational with the dead present among the living and sprit beings coming and going and affecting the every day lives of the living participants. I would suggest that the "whole family" in heaven and on earth is an echo of an earlier reference in 1:10, that the plan set forth in Christ in the fulness of time was “to gather up all things in him, things in the heavens and things on earth” and that “the things on earth” refers, in part, to those who were by nature children of wrath (2:3) in need of redemption and adoption (2:1-7). Further, the reference to the “whole family” is a back reference to “the whole building,” meaning the temple (2:21). The spiritual reality of ancestors as well as the powers and principalities behind the empire were very much in the foreground of the early Gentile house churches. They would have heard the comfort in the description of the Father’s love displayed in Christ Jesus, but also sensed the encouragement in the massive emphasis on God’s power, sovereignty and majesty.
>
> When I say "context," I am referring to the relevant assumptions the author and readers use to make sense of the grammar and syntax of the utterance. An inference based on context in this case is the method one will have to use to disambiguate PASA PATRIA however one does it.
>
> Yancy Smith, PhD
> yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
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