From: Edgar M. Krentz (emkrentz@mcs.com)
Date: Tue Jan 20 1998 - 23:59:49 EST
> EPHESIANS 4:5 -- "ONE" IN ALL THREE GENDERS
> Edward Pothier January 1998
>
> Ephesians 4:5 is a verse which comes in the middle of a great New
>Testament passage including a list of seven "ones" stressing unity.
>Besides being part of an extremely rich theological lode (whether by
>St. Paul or a later disciple of the Pauline school) it also is quite
>interesting just grammatically. This verse, both in Greek and most
>English translations, consists of only six words (three nouns, each
>modified by the adjective "one"):
>"<Ephesians 4:5> one Lord, one faith, one baptism;".
>
> What is interesting is that in Greek the three nouns are all of
>different grammatical genders: Lord=masculine, faith=feminine, and
>baptism=neuter. The Greek adjective for "one" is a highly irregular
>example doing more than just changing endings; so in this single verse
>all three genders of the adjective "one" (in the nominative case)
>occur:
>"<Eph 4:5>_hEIS KURIOS, MIA PISTIS, hEN BAPTISMA_".
This interesting grammatical phenomenon is one reason some (I among them)
identify the three acclamations you identified as a baptismal acclamation
that antendates the sevenfold one in which they occur. In other words, we
may have here another baptismal creedal acclamation similar to the one in 1
Cor 12:3: KURIOS IHSOUS CRISTOS and, perhaps, the acclamation ABBA hO
PATHR, attested both in Romans 8 and Galatians 4.
A positive contribution of form critical analysis.
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Edgar Krentz
Professor of New Testament
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Telephone: (773) 256-0752
e-mail: Office: ekrentz@lstc.edu;
Home: emkrentz@mcs.com
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