Re: EPI in Phil. 3:3

Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Fri, 18 Jul 1997 12:02:09 -0400

At 11:07 AM 7/18/97 -0400, John R Russell wrote:
>In Paul's opening thanksgiving of Philippians he states that he gives
>thanks to God EPI PASH TH MNEIA UMWN. Is the EPI causual or temporal?
>Most (Hawthorne, Fee, NIV) take it to be temporal. My initial
>observations of the passage was that it was causal, explaining why Paul
>gave thanks. O'Brien takes it as a causal use of EPI, but he also views
>the UMWN as subjective rather than objective. If this is a causal use of
>EPI, is it necessary to view the UMWN as subjective?

Interesting, now I understand the KJV translation: "I thank my God upon
every remembrance of you", which nicely preserves all the ambiguities you
mention.

Phil 1:3 EUXARISTW TWi QEWi MOU EPI PASHi THi MNEIai hUMWN (4) PANTOTE EN
PASHi DEHSEI MOU hUPER PANTWN hUMWN, META XARAS THN DEHSIN POIOUMENOS

The possibilities that you mention seem to be:

1. I thank my God whenever I remember you (temporal EPI, objective genitive)
2. I thank my God, for I remember you always in all my prayers... (causal
EPI, objective genitive)
3. I thank my God that you remember me (causal EPI, subjective genitive)

which leaves...

4. I thank my God whenever you remember me (temporal EPI, subjective genitive)

Am I correctly interpreting the options you see? You didn't mention 4
because it is ridiculous - Paul couldn't know when they remember him, though
he might conceivably know *that* they remember him, as in option 3.

I just want to make sure that I understand you correctly...

Jonathan

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