Working through Ephesians 4 Redux

As I’ve continued my way through Ephesians 4 (and I had hoped to have this syntax outline completed by the end of the year), I have spent a significant amount of time deciphering verse 16:

ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα συναρμολογούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας κατʼ ἐνέργειαν ἐν μέτρῳ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου μέρους τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ σώματος ποιεῖται εἰς οἰκοδομὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ.

This is a large prepositional phrase with a relative clause embedded in it. I stared at this Greek for a good five minutes. Beside the fact that there are several uncommon words, the syntax is confusing - so confusing in fact that Zerwick and Groversner write,

The imagery of v.16 is obscure to us and its exact meaning uncertain: lit. “from whom the whole body, being fitted together and joined by means of every ligament of supply (?bringing sustenance) corresponding to the activity in the measure of (?grace possessed by) each and every part, makes for the body’s growth for the building up of itself in love” (A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, 586).

Not knowing what else to do, I made a tree diagram. I love tree diagrams. They look so cool and are so helpful (if you can read them that is…). I think there are actually two possibilities for how we could understand this verse. Some translations take them as attributive adjectival participles and other translations take them as predicative adjectival participles. The first diagram shows them as attributive and the second as predicative:

I suppose I should explain some things for those of you who have never used these before. I’ve listed the names for the abbreviations at the bottom of the post. One thing that I found was interesting is that most translations actually transform a Greek noun in to the main verb of the clause - αὔξησιν (growth), but the verb is actually ποιεῖται (to make oneself). As far as I can tell, its impossible to provide an intelligible and at the same time “literal” translation. Literal is just about impossible with this verse.

Here’s my take on a translation that seeks as much parallel as possible while maintaining readability:

Attributive:
The whole body is bound and held together by every supporting ligament by the work of each individual part. Because of Christ the body causes itself to growth toward the goal of building up itself in love.

Predicative:
Because of Christ the whole body is bound and held together by every supporting ligament through the work of each individual part. The body causes itself to growth toward the goal of building itself up in love.

Essentially, as I see it, the prepositional phrase beginning the verse could govern one of two different clauses depending on which perspective is taken on the function of the participles.

If anyone trained in linguistics would be willing to comment on my diagram, I’d appreciate it. And anyone else who wants to can too. If you have a question or clarification, please ask.

If attributive, then the PP is the mother of the NP Subject “πᾶν τὸ σῶμα συναρμολογούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας κατʼ ἐνέργειαν ἐν μέτρῳ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου μέρους,” VP “ποιεῖται” and the NP Object “τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ σώματος” - the whole verse.

If predicative, then the PP is a mother only of the NP Subject “πᾶν τὸ σῶμα” and the NP Object “συναρμολογούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας κατʼ ἐνέργειαν ἐν μέτρῳ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου μέρους” of the first clause.

And finally by the way, I love Zerwick and Groversner A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament! Its probably one of the best Greek resources I have for reading the text.

From the top down and from the left to right (in the first diagram) the labels mean…

PP - Prepositional Phrase
P - Preposition
S| - S-Bar, a middle level node in the tree that connect embedded clauses to their above mothers - in this case a PP)
CMP - Short for COMP, which is short for Complementizer, a special word that introduces a complement clause (that is an embedded/subordinate clause) - Common English COMPS are words such as “that” in indirect discourse - i.e. “He said that . . .
S - Clause, whether its an independent clause or subordinate one, they’re all S’s
NPsj - Noun Phrase functioning as the subject
NPoj - Noun Phrase functioning as the object
VP - Verb Phrase
Q - Quantifier, a word that expresses a quantity, in this verse its “all”
D1 - Determiner One, Greek has two types of Determiners the other (ουτος) isn’t present in this verse
N - Noun
cn - Conjunction
N| - N-Bar, this is a nominal version of the S| its a mid level that functions between the word level (i.e. the Q, N, etc.) and the phrase level (i.e. the Noun Phrase). My analysis is based on Levels of Constituent Structure in New Testament Greek (Studies in Biblical Greek) by Michael Palmer.
NPg - Genitive Noun Phrase, since the term “possessor” is too limited in describing the Genitive’s usage in Greek, I am not using it.