![]() I mention this because ὑποτασσόμενοι in Ephesians 5.21-2 can either be taken as a passive (‘be subjected’), or a middle, which can be translated into English in a reflexive way (‘submit yourselves’). He explains that the Eth forms can be used for the reflexive as well as for the passive: Muraoka at Section 49 has the same six forms, written slightly differently. The Eshtaphal is not one of these six primary forms. I explained in an earlier post – and here I should perhaps repeat my disclaimer that I don’t know Syriac, I am only delving a little into standard grammars – that Syriac has six main verbal forms: pe’al, pa’el, and aph’el, and their three Eth-pattern counterparts, ethpe’el, ethpa’al, and ettaph’al. The Dukhrana analysis tool shows that the word at issue is ܡܶܫܬ݁ܰܥܒ݁ܕ݂ܳܢ (meštaᶜbəḏān), and that it is in the Eshtaphal form: Here is the verse again, with Western vowel signs and transliteration: It can be seen that the two forms of the text are identical in this verse. Like Hebrew, which has the same consonants as Syriac, they are to be read from right to left. How then does Simmons derive ‘be tenderly devoted to’ from the Peshitta text? Checking the textįirst of all, we may compare the two forms of the Syriac text that are available at, just to check that there are no differences in manuscripts that might explain Simmons’ translation. Thus all four translations have ‘our Lord’ instead of ‘the Lord’, but are otherwise along the same lines as the translations from the Greek. The chapter is here, and Ephesians 5.22 reads: Walters was published in 2013 by Gorgias Press. Etheridge’s is in green, Murdock’s in navy, and Lamsa’s in purple:Ī new translation by James E. The Peshitta tool gives three English translations from the Peshitta text, which is the Aramaic version that Simmons says in his FAQs he is ’employing insights’ from. He makes explicit in his FAQs that he is claiming to work from ‘the original Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic documents’, and not from English translations of these: My purpose here is simply to ascertain whether Simmons really has translated this verse from the Aramaic as he claims. As in my previous posts, I leave aside the question of why he would prefer to do that, when it must surely be certain that Paul would have been writing in Greek to the Ephesians. ![]() Simmons says he is translating from the Aramaic rather than the Greek. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. The verb for verse 22 is supplied from verse 21 and is the participle ὑ ποτασσόμενοι from ὑποτάσσω, which as Simmons rightly says, means in the middle/passive voice as here ‘to submit oneself’ or ‘be subject’. Here it is as it appears in the Kindle Edition of ‘Letters From Heaven by the Apostle Paul (The Passion Translation)’: This claim attracted my attention, and so I endeavoured, despite myself not knowing Syriac (the form of Aramaic that is used in the Peshitta), to test it.įirst of all, the Passion Translation (so-called) does indeed have the first part of Ephesians 5.22 rather as Brian Simmons gave it on the Sid Roth show, with ‘tenderly devoted to’ rather than ‘submit’. ‘Wives be tenderly devoted to your husband as the church is tenderly devoted to Christ.’Īs Roth observed, this is a ‘big difference’: The Aramaic text (still according to Simmons) is: ‘Wives submit yourselves unto your husband as unto the Lord.’
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