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Hamann on Eph 4

Thanks to Jay McVay for citing the Henry Hamann articles.  Hamann was a
visiting professor at Concordia Theological Seminary here in Fort Wayne on two
separate occasions during the final years of his life, and I was privileged to
serve as his pastor while he was away from his home in Australia.  We both had
an intense interest in this very passage from Ephesians 4 and held many
discussions on same.  I am convinced by his basic argument for the increasingly
unpopular three-fold understanding of v. 12.
 
Part of this argument concerns the connotation, if not in fact the denotation,
of katartismos.  While "equipping" might be acceptable in a former age, the
present understanding of "equipping" in terms of "educating", "training," etc.,
definately seems to miss the mark.  The word itself comes out of a medical
frame of reference, specifically applied to binding up injuries and setting
broken bones.  The KJV "perfecting" may be far closer to Paul's intent than
"equipping," especially when understood in a corporate, rather than individual,
sense.  Thus understood, Paul speaks of the gospel ministry of mending,
nurturing, strengthening, etc., the body of Christ, that it might grow ("be
built up").
 
Bob.