Subject: Re: 2 Cor. 5:19

From: David Moore (dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us)
Date: Thu Aug 24 1995 - 23:12:15 EDT


Subject: Re: 2 Cor. 5:19

"Edgar M. Krentz" <emkrentz@mcs.com> quoted and wrote:

>Ron Stephens wrote:
>
>>I'm hoping you will help me resolve a dilemma with 2nd Corinthians 5:19.
>>While the question has to do with the English, I'm hoping that your
>>knowledge of Greek will reveal the answer. I've been challenged concerning
>>this verse, as to the intended meaning of the conjunction "in".
>>
>>2Cor. 5:19 KJV "...God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself..."
>>2Cor. 5:19 NIV "...God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ..."
>>
>>Was God IN (i.e. within) Christ, as the KJV punctuation implies, or was God
>>reconciling the world INn (by means of) Christ, as the NIV indicates.
>
>Good question from the English text. The Greek text, translated in
>literalist fashion, reads "God was in Christ world reconciling to himself."
>The word order favors understanding "in Christ" as a dative of manner (= an
>adverb) modifying "was ... reconciling." The KJV is impossible, since "was
>... reconciling" is a relatively late grammatical formation to indicate an
>on-going action (analagous to our English "was reconciling." In short, the
>NIV is more accurate.
>
>As you can easily see, I think the Greek is more clear than David Moore
>suggests in his response to you. It will be interesting to read other
>reactions

        To say that the KJV rendering of this verse is "impossible" goes a
little far, does'’t it. The imperfect ofEIMI closely associated with a
locative use of the dative followed by a more remotely associated
participle is quite possible. See, for instance , Mk. 1:13 which tells us
that Jesus was in the desert forty days being tempted by Satan. Or see
Lk. 18:2 which tells us that, in a certain town, there was a judge that
neither feared God nor cared about men.

        Other passages may be interpreted similarly. Mark 4:38; 10:32 and
Eph. 2:12 are all translated that way by the NIV. The interpretation of 2
Cor. 5:19 pretty much boils down to whether one takes EN XRISTWi as
locative or instrumental. The construction, imperfect of EIMI, dative,
participle is not common in Paul. (Otherwise, I only found it in Eph.
2:12.) There is, however, the construction, imperfect of EIMI, participle,
dative. See Gal. 1:22, "I was unknown by face...."

        I still hold that neither the grammar nor the context of 2Cor.
5:19 provide material for a dogmatic decision on how it should be
translated.

David L. Moore Southeastern Spanish District
Miami, Florida of the Assemblies of God
dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us Department of Education



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