[b-greek] Ephesians 5:33

From: Chuck Tripp (ctripp@ptialaska.net)
Date: Tue May 29 2001 - 02:06:58 EDT


This text is a familiar one to me in English and I was surprised to see how
it is expressed in the greek. I am familiar with the NIV translation which
says "... and the wife must respect her husband...." Essentially expressed
as an imperative. The Greek goes like this:

PLHN KAI hUMEIS hOI HAQ'hENA, hEKASTOS THN hEAUTOU GUNAIKA hOUTWS AGAPATW
hWS hEAUTON, hH DE GUNH hINA FOBHTAI TON ANDRA.

I quoted the whole verse because it may be relevant to what caught my eye.
What is rendered as a quasi-imperative in the NIV is expressed as a hINA +
subjunctive, which sounds a whole lot less forceful than it is rendered in
the NIV. The other thing is that there is no verb preceeding the hINA so
either it is somehow dependent on the imperative that is expressed to the
man (THN hEAUTOU GUNAIKA...AGAPATW) or is to be otherwise understood by the
reader. My guess is that the DE following hH makes the final part of the
verse grammatically independent of the imperative to the man. That would
mean that the reader must supply the verb preceding hINA.

Any ideas as to what that might be? Also, I am curious how hINA +
subjunctive winds up being translated as a must do in the NIV. Would a
greek hearer understand that much force in that sentence? I would be
curious to hear any other comments anyone might have on that sentence
construction. Is the hINA +subjunctive in anyway dependent on the
imperative given to the man? I kind of doubt it but I was curious if anyone
thought that there was.

Chuck Tripp
Kodiak, Alaska


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