Re: Ephesians 5:14

Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Fri, 11 Jul 1997 10:38:10 -0400

At 10:02 AM 7/11/97 -0400, Carl W. Conrad wrote:

>How nice to know that I've been understood to mean what I said! Yes, I'd
>call it "middle/reflexive" and translate: "All that manifests itself is
>light." The slight(?) advantage of this over taking it as passive is that
>it gives the initiative to the divine. Seems to me too that it's consistent
>with the Johannine conception of Light as both revealing element and as
>criterion against which falsehood is shown up (John 9 et alibi).

Interesting, when you say "it gives the initiative to the divine", do you
mean that God is the one who reveals himself and is light? I like that
interpretation, yet I'm not sure that I agree with it in this context. After
all, verse 8 tells us:

HTE GAR POTE SKOTOS, NUN DE FOS EN KURIW

We were once darkness, but now, in the Lord, we are light. And that which
reveals itself is light, which is how we show ourselves to be different from
the ones who do deeds of darkness in secret.

Jonathan

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