At any rate, the difficulty in this verse is basically that there is no
verb; in Greek, forms of ESTIN are often implied. This could also have been
written as
DIO MNHMONEUETE hOTI hUMEIS POTE TA EQNH *HTE* EN SARKI, hOI LEGOMENOI
AKROBUSTIA hUPO THS LEGOMENHS PERITOMHN EN SARKI CEIROPOIHTOU
At that time, we who are Gentiles were not part of God's holy nation, but
among "the nations" - I like the Louw and Nida definition of TA EQNH as
"those who do not belong to the Jewish or Christian faith, 'heathens',
'pagans'". In the flesh, we were the uncircumcised, according to those who
are called the circumcised according to the flesh. My insertion of HTE is
meant as a clarification; it is also parallel to the HTE in verse 12:
hOTI HTE TWi KAIRWi EKEINwI XORIS CRISTOU
By the way, I think that the critical contrast being made in this passage is:
POTE ... EN SARKI once...in the flesh
NUNI DE EN CRISTWi but now in Christ
The passage revolves around the difference between these two states, the
way that Christ has broken down the barriers that kept those of us who are
Gentiles from being close to God, making the Jews and the Gentiles one
household, built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
Jonathan
___________________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com
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