From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 28 1998 - 06:44:23 EST
At 4:50 AM -0600 1/28/98, A. C. Livengood, Sr. wrote:
>Greetings all.
>
>I am interested in your (collective) opinions regarding the use of MEN .
>. . DE as it appears in Ephesians 4.11.
>
>Should it be trans. as "smooth" (i.e. without a marked antithetical
>purpose) as most -if not all- renderings submit? Or, should there be a
>distinction made between the terms to which they refer?
>
>(In the event that responses demand a theological opinion, private
>responses are welcomed.)
Well, at any rate, there's nothing theological in the formulation of the
Greek as such here. I'd say that there are many times that we don't
translate a MEN ... DE (or MEN ... DE ... DE ... --since there can be more
than two members to the series, as in the present instance), because
English, at least, doesn't note or discern sequence with the rigor that the
Greek-speaking mindset seems to insist upon. We could and, as you note,
usually do omit the MEN ... DE ... DE ... in translating Eph 4:11 into
English.
Nevertheless there is an emphasis in the Greek, however slight, that we
lose by not translating them, and in this instance, if I felt inclined to
represent the effect of those particles, I'd write: "And he gave (a)
apostles, (b) prophets, (c) evangelists, (d) pastors and teachers."
The force of the MEN ... DE ... DE ... is to articulate the categories in
much the same manner as we do when we enumerate the items in a list or when
we put the list items one under the other with bullet markers to highlight
them.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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