From: Ben Crick (ben.crick@argonet.co.uk)
Date: Fri Jul 11 1997 - 23:28:36 EDT
On Fri 11 Jul 97 (10:38:10), jwrobie@mindspring.com wrote:
> verse 8 tells us:
>
> HTE GAR POTE SKOTOS, NUN DE FOS EN KURIW
>
> We were once darkness, but now, in the Lord, we are light. And that
> which reveals itself is light, which is how we show ourselves to be
> different from the ones who do deeds of darkness in secret.
I'm sure Jonathan is right to draw our attention to verse 8. J Armitage
Robinson (uncle of Bishop JAT Robinson), in his /St Paul's Epistle to the
Ephesians/, 2nd Ed., p 201, wrote
"FANEROUMENON] 'Omne enim quod manifestatur lumen est', Vulg. To render with
the Authorised Version 'for whatsoever doth make manifest is light' is to do
violence to the Greek (for there is no example in the New Testament of the
middle voice of FANEROUN), and to offer a truism which adds nothing to the
meaning of the passage. In St Paul's mind 'to become manifest' means to cease
to be darkness, and to be a partaker of the very nature of light: 'for
everything that becomes manifest is light'. Thus the apostle has described a
process by which darkness itself is transformed into light. The process had
been realised in those to whom he wrote: HTE GAR POTE SKOTOS, NUN DE FWS
(v.8)."
JA Bengel (always the "commentators' commentator") writes at Ephesians 5:13
"TO FANEROUMENON, an Antanaclasis [the same word in a twofold sense], for
FANEROUTAI is passive; FANEROUMENON is middle, /what does not avoid being made
manifest/; comp. afterwards EGEIRAI, and ANASTA. ˜˜FWS, /light/) a
Metonymy, as ver. 8.* ˜˜ESTI, /is/) becomes, and afterwards is light."
*(footnote) Abstract for the concrete˜˜ /is light/, for, /is luminous/˜˜ is
/a child of the light/. ˜˜ED." (Andrew R Fausset MA, 1858)
IMHO J Armitage Robinson's work on Ephesians deserves more prominence than it
currently gets.
-- Revd Ben Crick, BA Bristol, 1963 (hons in Theology) <ben.crick@argonet.co.uk> 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
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