David Bentley Hart NT: 1 Peter 1:13

How do I work out the meaning of a Greek text? How can I best understand the forms and vocabulary in this particular text?
Forum rules
This is a beginner's forum - see the Koine Greek forum for more advanced discussion of Greek texts. Please quote the Greek text you are discussing directly in your post if it is reasonably short - do not ask people to look it up.

When answering questions in this forum, keep it simple, and aim your responses to the level of the person asking the question.
Post Reply
David Opderbeck
Posts: 3
Joined: January 22nd, 2018, 10:52 am

David Bentley Hart NT: 1 Peter 1:13

Post by David Opderbeck »

I've approved your post, but please notify a moderator of your real name, according to our forum policy, so that we can change your screen name to match. -- BH, moderator type guy.

Hi, I have only basic Greek skills, and I've been studying 1 Peter, using David Bentely Hart's (DBH) recent NT translation as one of my English versions. I'm noticing some interesting things. Here's one -- curious for any thoughts on this:

1 Peter 1:13: Διὸ ἀναζωσάμενοι τὰς ὀσφύας τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν νήφοντες τελείως ἐλπίσατε ἐπὶ τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν ἐν ἀποκαλύψει Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

NRS: Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.

NIV: Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

DBH: So, girding up the loins of your mind, being sober, vest your hope completely in the grace being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus the Annointed,

I understand DBH's decision to "literally" render the idiom ἀναζωσάμενοι τὰς ὀσφύας. I understand his decision to render Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ "Jesus the Annointed."

DBH renders the phrase ἐπὶ τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν ἐν ἀποκαλύψει Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ as something happening in the present: "the grace being brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Chirst." Both the NRS and NIV render it as something in the future: "The grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed" (NRS) or "the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming" (NIV). The difference seems to turn on the function of the preposition ἐπὶ. The object of the preposition φερομένην is in the accusative. According to BDAG, ἐπὶ with the accusative can mean where (location), to or toward or on or upon (direction -- either in progress or attained), over (marker of power or control over something), before (as in a legal proceeding, before the court), against (marker of hostile opposition), or when, in the time of, at, on (marker of temporal association) -- or, "marker of feelings directed toward someone, in, on, for, toward, after words that express belief, trust hope" -- and this last one is where BDAG lists 1 Peter 1:13.

So why would DBH choose a more "present" rendering of this prepositional phrase? The context seems to suggest a future hope, and that seems consistent with 1 Peter's theology: these are the end times, Christ is returning very soon, so hang on and when Christ comes back he will make everything right.
Robert Emil Berge
Posts: 63
Joined: August 24th, 2016, 1:34 pm

Re: David Bentley Hart NT: 1 Peter 1:13

Post by Robert Emil Berge »

There is no explicit future sense in ἐπὶ τὴν φερομένην ὑμῖν χάριν. I would say "put all your hope towards the grace brought by...", but of course we can understand that this is a future event from the context. When translating there is always a choice about how much interpretation to do for the reader, since translation is always interpretation. The other versions let the obvious interpretation be part of the translation, while DBH leaves it up to the reader to see the context, which is still there in the translation, it's just not spelled out further than it is done in the Greek.
Post Reply

Return to “What does this text mean?”