Corpus-Paul

["Paul O. Wendland" <wendlanp AT wls.wels.net>]

Dave:--
>
> Does the end of Eph
> 3:3 suggest that there was a previous letter to the same readership, or
> does this simply refer back to earlier text in Eph?

KAQWS PROEGRAYA EN OLIGWi

"just as I wrote you in brief"

The question revolves around how you take the aorist indicative.

A) 1--If you take it as referring to past time, then Paul could very well be
referring to a prior letter, 2--although even in this instance it could,
conceivably, refer to earlier portions of the letter.

B) If you take it as an epistolary aorist (that is, a convention in letter
writing "in which the author self-consciously describes his letter from the
time frame of the audience"--Wallace p. 562., then it most definitely refers
to the current letter, and can be translated something like "just as I've
written you briefly (now)."

David Wallace has a discussion of it in his grammar on pp. 562-563.  I
imagine the student will make his decision based on other than a purely
grammatical analysis, such as the line of thought of the letter.  I
personally would opt for either A2 or B)--either of which would exclude the
thought of a prior letter--because of "line of thought" considerations.

Since I don't consider myself either a Greek expert or the son of one, I'm
very much interested in other views.

Paul
===============================
Paul O. Wendland
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary
wendlanp AT wls.wels.net