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Friday, January 18, 2013

Ephesians 1.7-10

1.7 In him* we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of wrongdoings,1 according to the riches of his grace2 8 which was more than enough for us, in all wisdom and insight, 9 making known3 to us the mystery of his will,4 according to his purpose which he put forward in him 10 in a plan for the fulfilling5 of the times,6 to unite7 all things in Christ: those in the heavens and those on the earth, in him.
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1τῶν παραπτωμάτων, Gen.: Objective (of ἄφεσιν, from ἀφίημι)
2τῆς χάριτος, Gen.: Attributed ("gracious riches"), Epexegetical (the riches are ambiguous, and χάριτος explains them)
3γνωρίσας, Ptc.: Substantival (related to προορίσας in 1.5; see above asterisk note)
4τοῦ θελήματος, Gen.: Attributed, Epexegetical ("the mystery of his will," where the mystery is ambiguous, and the will explains it. Q: "What kind of mystery is it?" A: "The one about what God wants.")
5τοῦ πληρώματος, Gen.: Purpose (though a different option may be better)
6τῶν καιρῶν, Gen.: Objective (of πληρώματος, from πληρόω)
7ανακεφαλαιώσασθαι, Inf.: Appositional ("the plan, namely, the plan to unite")
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*The phrase ἐν ᾧ appears three times throughout the beginning of Ephesians (1.7, 11, 13). It is translated as "him" instead of "whom" to avoid making vv. 3-14 an enormous run-on sentence. However, I suspect that the "whom" is part of a long string of relative clauses ["Blessed be the God who: (1.3) blessed us and (1.5) chose us beforehand; and in whom (1.7) we have redemption, (1.11) we were chosen as heirs, and (1.13) we heard the word of truth]. When I get to vv. 11 and 13, I'll just link them back to this post.
-Τῆς χάριτος at the end of v. 7 has two possibilities here: attributed and epexegetical. I don't see any significant difference between the two. If attributive, it highlights the source of the "redemption" and "forgiveness." If exegetical, it merely explains the type of riches, saying that God is rich in grace. If there is any difference, it is on whether the riches or the grace is the emphasis of the phrase (though this may be important after all).
-A similar situation happens in v. 9 with τοῦ θελήματος, though I suspect it cannot be attributive, but attributed. "Willful mystery" doesn't make much sense, does it? A "mysterious will," however, fits perfectly. The epexegetical option is clearer in fn. 4.

5 comments:

  1. Good attention to the Greek. A question (or two): "Forgiveness" is a fairly standard translation of αφιημι, but why "wrongdoing" for an instance of παραπιπτω? That seems a bit active for a word that implies incidental accident in the pursuit of good. Also, have you considered the ablative here? "Release from" is as good for αφιημι with the genitive, and perhaps better given that this glosses απολυτρωσις. Redemption is always redemption from something.

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    1. Matthew, I wrote out an introduction to my translating work a few weeks ago (check the link at the end of the comment) where I point out my use of the UBS4 Reader's Edition. More often than not, I used whichever term they supplied in the footnotes. Great thoughts, though. I hope you'll be visiting the sight more often. It's rare that I have to defend or truly consider why I've chosen one translation of a word over another. I appreciate your input, and I get the feeling you've been at this kind of stuff longer than I have.

      http://reedeemedexegesis.blogspot.com/2013/01/translating-introduction.html

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    2. I have every sympathy for where you are; my first work on Romans looks a lot like this. :) Before that, I had never done a whole book myself. I intend to keep reading you, and I hope to be useful now and again.

      I'm generally one to push meanings wider. If I had to recommend one tool for that, it would be Liddell-Scott-Jones, the "Big Liddell," which you can find and use on the TLG website. LSJ in book form is so massive as to be inconvenient, but online it weighs nothing. Using beta-code transliteration for the letters, you can type in any Greek word you're looking for, and get as full a range of meanings and uses as it knows. If you find yourself wondering about something in the footnotes, or looking to defend a choice, it's worth a look.

      Also, I love the genitive. If I had a favorite case, that would be it.

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    3. The first book I worked through in its entirety was Hebrews, but I didn't do it alone. My 3rd-year Greek class (all 6 of us and the professor) went through it, and it was several kinds of hard!

      Thanks for the LSJ tool. That's bound to come in handy.

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    4. A suggestion for genitives: work back to whatever it is they attach to. (2) and (4) are similar, in that they both touch accusatives. But (4) connects with a simple direct object, where (2) belongs to a word that is accusative as a matter of specifying the way KATA means in the sentence. That doesn't change the genitive function that much, and I think you're on target with connecting "grace" with "redemption" and "forgiveness." I might suggest the image of a treasury of graces, or favors, from which these have been disbursed. I've been out of Wallace too long to have a pat category beyond recognizing function, though.

      Also, I'd like to suggest that (5) and (6) are strung together after OIKONOMIAN, and they affect each other. OIKONOMIA is a household word, suggesting God's stewardship of the totality of all seasons/cycles of time, KAIROI being things that have basically to do with harvesting. Which is probably connected to the meaning of the ANAKEFALAIWSIS TOU PANTOS EN XRISTW.

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