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Re: metrical triplet form
On Fri, 28 Oct 1994 GTCOTR@aol.com wrote:
> I have read somewhere that Eph. 5:14 in Gk. is in "metrical triplet form."
>
> Would someone care to comment on it's structure, and perhaps how the metrical
> triplet is identified. (Please pardon my ignorance.)
>
> I am also curious as to the similiarity or lack thereof to 1 Tim. 3:16, and
> the suggestion that one or both may have been at one time songs?
>
> Kenneth Bent
> gtcotr@aol.com
I don't think there's anything more complicated in this than that the
verse is in three clauses, each of which is one "colon" of a three-part
structure;the structure is clearly evident in the text as printed in UBS4:
Egeire ho katheudwn,
kai anasta ek twn nekrwn,
kai epiphausei soi ho Xristos.
The first two cola are parallel in structure to the extent that each
begins with an imperative; they are also parallel in that they say
precisely the same thing in different phrasing; the third colon states
the consequence. This is not really a native Greek poetic structure but
rather is a common Hebrew and ancient Near Eastern poetic structure.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
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