kpkr333 wrote: ↑August 31st, 2023, 12:57 pm
Hi! I'm currently going through Ben Merkle's and Robert Plummer's "Beginning with New Testament Greek". I'm on chapter 19 and I'm doing some translation exercises. I have to translate the following from Romans 5:6
ἔτι γὰρ Χριστὸς ὄντων ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν (weak) ἔτι κατὰ καιρὸν ὑπὲρ ἀσεβῶν (ungodly) ἀπέθανεν
The translation that makes the most amount of sense to me right now is
"Yet indeed Christ - while we were still weak - at the right time, died for the ungodly"
But they translate it as
"For while we were yet weak, at the right season/time, Christ died for the ungodly"
I'm not sure how they got this or how other translators translate it in a similar way to them. Can someone please help me understand? I'm sorry if this is a silly question :p
From BrillDAG:
ἔτῐ cf. Lat. and Umbr. et, Skt. áti, Goth. iþ, Av. aiti- adv. ⓐ still, of time (referring to the pres., past and fut.): ἄλγε’ ἔδωκεν … ἠδʼ ἔ. δώσει he has given grief and will give it still IL. 1.96; ἔ. καὶ νῦν still even now IL. 1.455; ἠμὲν πάλαι ἠδʼ ἔ. καὶ νῦν, ἐξ ἔ. τοῦ ὅτε a long time already and still even now, since the time when IL. 9.106; εἰ Ζεὺς ἔ. Ζεύς if Zeus is still Zeus SOPH. O.C. 623; ἔ. καὶ νυνί still now PLAT. Symp. 215d; ἔ. πρόσθεν still earlier PLAT. Soph. 242d; ἔτι νυκτός while it was still night CHARIT. 2.1.1; ἔτʼ ἐκ βρέφεος still from childhood ANTIP. (AP 9.567.1) ‖ s.times with fut. one day, in the future AESCHL. Pr. 907 SOPH. El. 218 etc. ‖ with neg. no longer, see οὐκέτι, μηκέτι; οὐδʼ ἄρʼ ἔτι δὴν ἵππω δευέσθην σημάντορος nor did the two horses fail the guide for a long time still IL. 8.126; ἔτʼ οὐχ οἵα τε she is no longer able SOPH. O.T. 24; οὐδέν εἰμ’ ἔ. I am no more SOPH. El. 218 ⓑ still, besides IL. 6.411, al. etc.; ἕτερόν γ’ ἔ. still another OD. 14.325; ἔτʼ ἄλλο τέταρτον still a (another) fourth HES. Op. 157; τίν’ οὖν ἔτʼ ἄλλον who no longer another AESCHL. Ch. 114; καὶ πρὸς τοῖσδʼ ἔ. and besides, and on top of these SOPH. Ph. 1339; πρὸς τούτοις ἔ. τοῖσι κακοῖς in addition to all these woes ARISTOPH. Nub. 720; ἔ. δὲ καί and besides THUC. 1.80.3 etc.; ἔ. τε moreover, still more PLAT. Phaedr. 279a | in enumeration πρῶτον μέν … ἔπειτα δέ … ἔ. δέ at first … then … moreover XEN. An. 6.6.13 etc. | to reinforce (with compar. and adv.) ἔ. μᾶλλον or μᾶλλον ἔ. still more IL. 14.97, al. OD. 18.22 etc. = ἔ. πλέον or πλέον ἔ. HDT. 7.6.2 THUC. 1.80.4 etc. = ἔ. μάλα: ἔτι τούτοις μάλα above all for these ARISTOPH. Pax 53, al.; κἄτι τοῦδʼ ἀνούστερος and still more stupid than this AESCHL. Pr. 987 (cf. SOPH. O.T. 272); ἔ. ἄνω still more inside XEN. An. 7.5.9 ῑ in arsis IL. 6.139 ‖ crasis καὶ ἔ. > κἄτι Ion. κἤτι.
Franco Montanari, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2015).
The first ἔτι governs the whole sentence and functions logically. The second ἔτι governs the participial phrase. This is the word that makes the sentence awkward, and it might explain why there are a lot of textual variants in this verse.
“For moreover, Christ—we still being weak—at the right time died for the ungodly.”