Re: Romans 5:6 ETI...ETI KATA KAIRON
Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Tue, 15 Apr 1997 12:23:13 -0400
At 07:08 AM 4/15/97 -0500, Carl W. Conrad wrote:
>At 5:26 AM -0500 4/15/97, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>>I'm having problems understanding this sentence, and I think my point of
>>confusion is the ETI...ETI KATA KAIRON formulation:
>>
>>Roma 5:6 (GNT) ETI GAR CRISTOS ONTWN hHMWN ASQENWN ETI KATA KAIRON hUPER
>>ASEBWN APEQANEN.
>>
>>Some manuscripts, incidentally, say EI GAR, which I can read and understand
>>- in this case ONTWN hHMWN ASQENWN ETI becomes one phrase. But I simply
>>don't know how to read the ETI...ETI in the version I quoted above.
>
>I would understand the first ETI as to be understood with the genitive
>absolute ONTWN hHMWN ASQENWN, and I would understand the ETI KATA KAIRON
>phrase as in apposition to it. While it seems a bit strange for the ETI to
>be removed from the adverbial phrase with which it is to be understood and
>separated from that phrase by the subject CRISTOS, the rhetorical emphasis
>upon the ETI is powerful, underscored all the more by the succeeding GAR.
>What makes the construction awkward is that CRISTOS is also competing for
>that rhetorical highlighting at the beginning of the sentence. My weak
>attempt to convey the rhetorical force:
>
>"For it was even then that Christ--while we were helpless, even at the
>opportune moment--he died for us impious (creatures)."
Might the second ETI actually go with CRISTOS too, and just be repeated for
emphasis?
Jonathan
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Jonathan Robie
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