From: Michael Holmes (holmic@bethel.edu)
Date: Fri Dec 17 1999 - 11:10:45 EST
Re Bart Ehrman's query re GENOITO in Ignatius, Ephesians 11f, to which
Edward Hobbs, Carl Conrad, and Dale Wheeler have responded: my curiosity
aroused by the interchange between Edward, Carl, and Dale, I checked to see
how I had rendered them when I updated Lightfoot's translation.
(11.2) "...I carry around these chains (my spiritual pearls!), by which I
hope, through your prayers, to rise again. May I always share in them, in
order ..."
(12.2) "...Paul, who was sanctified, who was approved, who is deservedly
blessed--may I be found in his footsteps when I reach God!--who in every
letter ..."
In the first instance in 11.2, the preceding "I carry around..." no doubt
influenced the choice of "I hope...", which Edward so heartily endorsed. In
12.2, reading the clause containing GENOITO as an exclamatory prayer
inserted into the middle of the extended description of Paul shaped the
punctuation and the translation, "--may I ...". In the second instance in
11.2, which easily could have gone either way, it was probably the
circumstance that Ignatius was referring to the Ephesians' prayer--something
over which he had minimal control--that led me render "May I always share
..." rather than "I hope"; either way, he's making an implied request for
their prayers.
So, I have to some extent tried to catch the best of both Edward's and
Dale's comments (something that will not surprise Bart, who regularly
accuses me of trying to both fish and cut bait ...)
Mike Holmes
Bethel College
At 04:05 PM 12/15/99 -0500, Bart Ehrman wrote:
> Ignatius goes on a tear with GENOITO MOI in Ephesians 11f (3x). It's
>normally translated something like "may it be to me that ..." or "may I
>be" (optative of wish). What do you think of "I hope that I," or
>something comparable? E.g., translating
>
> "In him I am bearing my chains, which are spiritual pearls, EN hOIS
>GENOITO MOI ANASTHNAI TH PROSEUXH hUMWN" as "In him I am bearing my
>chains, which are spiritual pearls. In them I hope to rise again through
>your prayers..."
>
> Too weak? Wrong idea? Unnuanced? Perfect in every way?
>
>-- Bart Ehrman
> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
>
>
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