The spirit of "νυν" ?

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Bbennetch
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The spirit of "νυν" ?

Post by Bbennetch »

τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας

Michael W. Holmes, The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Lexham Press; Society of Biblical Literature, 2011–2013), Eph 2:2. (Just giving credit to the source text here)

I am not working on my homework, though I am at home and working on this. I am 63 and studying Ephesians. I see that consensus is clearly to translate this sentence as "The spirit which is now at work in the sons of disobedience." In looking at this sentence in the context I am thinking that there might be some reason to read it as "the spirit of ‘now’ which is at work in the sons of disobedience,” where “the spirit of now” is a kind of zeitgeist. According to BDG the νυν with article can have the meaning of this present time/age. Is this a possibility or do other points of grammar not allow for this reading?
Jonathan Robie
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Re: The spirit of "νυν" ?

Post by Jonathan Robie »

This is a good question - and I think context is the best way to answer it.

τὸ πνεῦμα can have a range of meanings in Greek, but it has to be interpreted in context, and these two phrases seem to be parallel:
  • κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου
  • κατὰ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας·
I think that context tells us that τοῦ πνεύματος is the same as ὁ ἄρχων τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος - the prince of the power of the air is the spirit he is talking about. ὁ αἰῶν τοῦ κόσμου τούτου is the νῦν he is talking about, a time linked to the corrupt state of this current world.

There may be other reasonable interpretations, but this is what it looks like to me. Does that help?

[Corrected - see below]
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
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James Spinti
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Re: The spirit of "νυν" ?

Post by James Spinti »

Jonathan has a good response, but perhaps it would be better to take a look at the whole attributive phrase: τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος. I would take the participle, ἐνεργοῦντος, to be governing the νῦν. Hence: "now working," which seems to be the way that most translations take it.

James
Proofreading and copyediting of ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies monographs
Jonathan Robie
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Re: The spirit of "νυν" ?

Post by Jonathan Robie »

James Spinti wrote: November 15th, 2024, 12:32 pm Jonathan has a good response, but perhaps it would be better to take a look at the whole attributive phrase: τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος. I would take the participle, ἐνεργοῦντος, to be governing the νῦν. Hence: "now working," which seems to be the way that most translations take it.

James
Yes, I agree. So it is misleading to look at τοῦ νῦν as a unit, since τοῦ governs the entire attributive phrase:

τοῦ πνεύματος
the spirit

τοῦ
that

νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας·
now is at work in the sons of disobedience
ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηποροῦντο, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες, τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι;
http://jonathanrobie.biblicalhumanities.org/
Bbennetch
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Re: The spirit of "νυν" ?

Post by Bbennetch »

That is very helpful, both the context of which "spirit" we are talking about and the finer point of what portion του is governing. I yield to your experience. The idea of the spirit of this age is already present in any case in this passage. Thanks for your help.
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