Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 30:1 (Oct 2020)
Article: The Pericope Boundary In Ephesians 5:18–24: Discourse Markers Favor The Break Being At Verse 22
Author: Kevin Gary Smith

Conspectus 30:1 (October 2020) p. 76

The Pericope Boundary In Ephesians 5:18–24: Discourse Markers Favor The Break Being At Verse 22

Kevin G. Smith

and

Jose de Carvalho

Abstract

Since the proliferation of scholarly works examining Ephesians 5 through the lens of modern gender debates, the preferred segmentation of the text in many articles, commentaries, Bible translations, and Greek editions of the New Testamenthasshifted. Verse 21, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ,” is now commonly grouped with verses 22–24 instead of with verses 18–20. Scholars argue that verse 21, which focuses on human-to-human relationships, marks a sharp topical break from verses 18–20, which deal with human- to-divine relationships, but verse 21 fits thematically with verses 22–24. By contrast, we argue that linguistic considerations make it more natural to keep verse 21 with verses 18–20 and start a new subsection in verse 22. Our approach focuses on discourse markers that indicate coherence and discontinuity in the Greek text, most notably Levinsohn’s (2000) concept of a point of departure as the primary marker of discontinuity and Baugh’s (2015) notion of the distinction between a grammatical and a periodic sentence in Greek discourse. Whereas modern readers tend to dichotomize vertical and horizontal relationships, the author of Ephesians structured the text to position both giving thanks to God and submitting to one another as parallel results of being filled with the Spirit. We do violence to his train of thought when we impose modern categorizations of the world and contemporary gender concerns upon a first-century text.

Keywords

discourse analysis, discourse markers, mutual submission, periodic sentence, point of departure

About The Authors

Dr. Kevin Smith holds a DLitt in Greek from the University of Stellenbosch and a PhD in Theology from the South African Theological Seminary. He served for 14 years as SATS’s Head of Academics before taking office as Principal in 2018. His interests lie in the spheres of biblical studies and theological education.

Mr. Jose de Carvalho has been lecturing at the South Africa...