From: Northland Bible College (northlan@soonet.ca)
Date: Wed Feb 21 1996 - 09:52:17 EST
Hi all:
Here are a few more questions that have arisen in our exegesis of
Ephesians that I hope some of you will comment on.
In 4:16 PAN TO SWMA appears to be the main subject in the sentence. The
question is, the subject of which verb? If we supply no finite (ie.
supply 'WN instead of 'ESTIN) between
this subject and the following participles (SUNARMOLOGOUMENON KAI
SUNBIBAZOMENON), then it appears the main verb in the sentence would be
POIETAI further on in 4:16. Is one translation better than the other?
Does either translation violate any rules of syntax?
It seems that POIETAI in 4:16b would then be the primary clause if we
supplied 'WN before the participles in 4:16a, but POIETAI would be the
secondary clause if we go with'ESTIN. Any comments?
We further noted that two agencies are expressed in 4:16 for the joining
and fitting together of the Body, namely 'EX hOU (referring to Christ in
4:15), and also DIA PASHS hAFHS (referring to individual believers). That
much is fact. The question is prompted by the KAI between the
participles, and the positioning of these two agencies - one before the
first participle, and the second agency following the second participle.
Question: Does the positioning of these agencies and participle
separated by KAI suggest that Christ is the agent of SUNARMOLOGOUMENON
and believers are the agents of SUNBIBAZOMENON? I realize the gender of
both participles relates them both to SWMA and doesn't directly relate
them to these distinct agents.
In 4:18, in the phrase DIA THN 'AGNOIAN THN 'OUSAN 'EN 'AUTOIS, how far
does the influence of the preposition extend? To the entire phrase, or
primarily over THN 'AGNOIAN? We were thinking that if DIA influenced the
whole phrase, then THN 'OUSAN could be classified in an adverbial sense
the same as THN 'AGNOIAN. But if the attributive participle is not
governed by DIA, then even though it is still adverbial in nature, it
would not be modifying what 'AGNOIAN is modifying, but would be modifying
'AGNOIAN directly. Clarification?
Steve Clock
Northland Bible College
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:38 EDT