Re: Eph 5:19b

Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Thu, 25 Sep 97 22:40:24

On Wed 24 Sep 97 (05:56:20), cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu wrote:
> One question for clarification's sake here, Ben. I am assuming that your
> "from the heart" conception of the sense is what accounts for the Ablative
> side of your identification "Instrumental/Ablative" here, but although
> the Proto Indo European instrumental do, in fact, fuse in Latin and perhaps
> in some other IE languages, they go separate ways in Greek, Instrumental
> with Dative and Ablative with Genitive. This being the case, I don't
> see how THi KARDIAi can be Ablative. Could you explain this? Did you
> mean something more than that "from the heart" is also IMPLICIT in the
> expression, or only that?

Thank you Carl for the timely reminder. I have learnt French, German, Latin,
Russian, Greek and Hebrew in my youth ("class of '60"). Of those only Russian
preserves a fully inflected structure in 6 cases, Nom Acc Gen Dat Instr Loc.

I was influenced by Psalms 9:1; 86:12; 111:1; 119:145; 138:1, where the Hebrew
reads /BeKhoL-LiBBiY/ or /BeKhol-LeBhaBhiY/ or /BeKhoL-LeBh/. This is rendered
in the familiar KJV as "*with* my whole heart": seemingly instrumental. The
preposition /Be-/ means "in" usually; hence Locative. The LXX reads in nearly
every case [EXOMOLOGHSOMAI SOI KURIE] *EN hOLHi KARDIAi MOU*. EN like /Be-/
indicates Locative, n'est-ce pas?

As to Ephesians 5:19, we have no preposition, just the bare THi KARDIAi.
If this were a LXX Psalm phrase half quoted by Paul, it could be that we
should mentally insert EN [hOLHi] before THi KARDIAi. Then it could be either
"in the heart" or "with the heart", couldn't it? Is the KJV right to render
it "with my whole heart"?

Or does the Psalmist mean "silently", "in his heart" but not with his lips?
Hardly in Psalm 119:145, where LXX has EKEKRAXA EN hOLHi KARDIAi MOU ! A
silent scream? - no.

-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)