[b-greek] Re: ONTES Eph 4:18 - which participle?

From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Fri Oct 05 2001 - 10:00:46 EDT


At 12:17 PM -0700 10/3/01, c stirling bartholomew wrote:
>A disagreement exists about which participle ONTES should be joined with in
>Eph 4:18.
>
>ESKOTWMENOI - H.A.W. Meyer, E. Best, H. Alford, P.T. Obrien, UBSGNT3
>
>APHLLOTRIWMENOI - Eadie, and BDF (#352) vid*.
>
>*I may be misreading BDF on this but I don't think so.
>
>It is humorous after 120 years to read Alford warning us to "beware" of
>Eadie's analysis.
>
>Verb Aspectologists might want to take a look at S.E. Porter, Verb Aspect p.
>475 and B. Fanning, pp. 416-18 for their discussion of this construction.

Sorry, I don't have these at hand; Fanning, which I'd really like to read,
is OP.

>I would be curious to here the pros and cons from anyone who has taken a
>look at this issue for more than ten minutes.

17 TOUTO OUN LEGW KAI MARTUROMAI EN KURIWi, MHKETI hUMAS PERIPATEIN, KAQWS
KAI TA EQNH PERIPATEI EN MATAIOTHTI TOU NOOS AUTWN, 18 ESKOTWMENOI THi
DIANOIAi ONTES, APHLLOTRIWMENOI THS ZWHS TOU QEOU ...

Well, I've looked at it for more than 10 minutes but haven't read any of
the commentaries. Quite frankly, I can't see any factor in favor of
understanding ONTES with APHLLOTRIWMENOI, nor can I see either why it
matters, since it would be understood in either case. More interesting is
the agreement of both m. nom. pl. participles, presumably with TA EQNH as
an instance of CONSTRUCTIO AD SENSUM. At any rate, it seems to me that the
position of ONTES is appropriate at the end of a participial phrase,
inasmuch as the copula quite commonly falls in this position, allowing the
greater emphasis upon the predicate adj/ptc and its modifier. Of course,
it's true that the punctuation of UBS4 assumes that ONTES construes with
ESKOTWMENOI.

Am I missing something? Probably. I can see how some MIGHT want to
understand ESKOTWMENOI adverbially with PERIPATEI: the gentiles walk in a
state of mental disarray BECAUSE their minds are in a state of darkness,
and then ONTES would construe with APHLLOTRIWMENOI so that this phrase
functions as an appositional relative clause, "who are alienated ..."

Nevertheless, it seems a more natural way of construing the elements to
understand BOTH participles in vs. 18 so that ONTES construes primarily
with ESKOTWMENOI and implicitly--secondarily--with APHLLOTRIWMENOI. So: "So
I urge you and entreat you in the Lord not to "walk" any longer as the
Gentiles also 'walk" in their futility of insight--the Gentiles, who are
shrouded in mental darkness, alienated from God's life ..."

Of course now that I, shrouded in my own mental darkness, have offered an
opinion on this verse, perhaps some more enlightened persons will take on
Clay's challenge.
--

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad@ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/

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