Commas Matter, pt 2

In the first installment of this series, I laid a number of bible versions (of Ephesians 4:12) next to each other in chronological order. The more modern translations exhibited a universal tendency toward removing the comma after ‘saints; thus, ‘perfecting the saints for the work of the ministry.’ The Byzantine Greek (and TR) text reads: πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμὸν τῶν ἁγίων, εἰς ἔργον διακονίας, εἰς οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ σώματος τοῦ χριστοῦ. saints for the work of service. (The so-called eclectic text removes the comma) This translation is both innovative and unwarranted.

As I have often brought this case of unwarranted innovation to my peers in academia and the church, the response has been to rush to a defense on the innovation as though my position was stating that believers in their general office are NOT to serve or minister. This is not what my correction to the innovation is saying.

In support, I Cite T. David Gordon, in some length, in his article entitled ‘ “Equipping” Ministry in Ephesians 4:12?’:

“As is ordinarily the case with any error, there is an element of truth in this one. Believers are indeed called to be saints and to live distinctly holy lives in the world, thus functioning as salt and light. Further, they are called to serve one another in love, even as Christ loved them. They are to exhibit his mercy in their conduct toward others. Such acts of charity and mercy may properly be called “service” or “ministry,” and in Greek the one word diakonia could be employed to describe any service of any sort. The error does not reside in reminding Christians of their perpetual responsibility to live Christlike lives. Rather, the error consists in reducing the function of the ordained ministry to “equipping” saints for service.” (Emphasis mine)

Gordon goes on,

“Since Eph 4:11-12 is so often cited as alleged justification of the above viewpoint, what follows is an attempt to demonstrate that this passage, correctly understood, teaches no such thing at all. I realize this may not persuade all of those who promote the “equipping” viewpoint, since their view may never have been exegetically motivated. Ephesians 4:11-12 (in several recent translations) was simply a convenient prooftext for what they wished to believe anyway. But I am not so cynical as to believe that there are no practicing Bible believers in the evangelical world. I still believe they are out there, and I continue to meet them with some regularity. Such individuals do not wish to grasp and twist the Scriptures to suit their own purposes. They sincerely wish to discover what the mind of the Holy Spirit is as revealed in Holy Scripture. For such individuals I believe that what follows is sufficient to convince them of his mind on this matter.

The question stated is whether Eph 4:12 teaches that the “ministry” of the Church is done by the “saints” and whether the only distinctive role of the officers is to equip the saints for such service. The very fact that some ancient translations (Vg, KJV) do not translate the text in such a way as to permit such a conclusion should produce caution and should motivate those who are otherwise convinced to frame an exegetical argument.

My belief is that the “equipping lay ministry” translation is indefensible . There is not a single, nor even a twofold, but a triple difficulty with translating Eph 4:12 in such a way. To sustain such a translation, three things must be proven: (1) that the three purpose clauses, so obviously parallel in their grammatical structure, have different implied subjects (thereby disrupting the parallel); (2) that katartismon is properly translated “equip” here; and (3) that ergon diakonias refers not to acts of ser- vice, in the general sense, but to the overall “Christian ministry.” If any one of these three is not proven, the entire argument unravels.”

I propose to tackle these in reverse order, from #3 to #1. #3 next time.