Ephesians 5:1-2 – Koine Accessible Insights (KAI) Studies

This is an overview of another Koine Accessible Insights (KAI) tool: the Interlinear Greek New Testament, the King James Version (KJV, aka AV) available in the Kindle app format for the Apple iOS, and perhaps other systems. For convenience, I will refer to it here as the KIKJV (Kindle Interlinear KJV).

Source of KIKJV App

The source of KIKJV app is identified only by: publishingToronto@gmail.com. The publisher is apparently located in Toronto CAN. The app publishing date is December 2016.

Format of KIKJV App

The app is extremely simple: it has the KJV version as shown below using the same text from Ephesians 5:1-2 discussed in other posts.

Screenshot of Ephesians 5 of Kindle Interlinear KJV

As evident, the underlying Koine text is the mss format, not a reverse interlinear (a reverse interlinear re-expresses the original mss to follow the English translation to be which it is affixed). So this gives the original mss word order, allowing a better understanding of potential emphases present in the Koine, such as here with the opening word being the verb of being: “to be.”

Koine Source Text

The edition of the Koine text is not identified. I would presume that the Koine used is the so called “Received Text.” However, it is not specified which such text it is. See a summary of the various such versions below:

The Greek Received Text was the basis for all of the Protestant and Baptist Bibles until the late 19th century, and there are several slightly varying editions. Erasmus published five editions (1516, 1519, 1522, 1527, 1535). Robert Stephanus published four (1546, 1549, 1550, 1551). Theodore Beza published at least four independent editions (1556, 1582, 1688-89, 1598). The Elziver family printed two editions (1624, 1633).

In 1881 Frederick Scrivener, under contract to the Cambridge University Press, published the Greek text underlying the King James Bible. This edition of the Received Text has been republished many times, most recently by the Trinitarian Bible Society and by the Dean Burgon Society. It conforms to the KJV.
Which Edition of the Received Text Should We Use?
Updated February 11, 2016 (first published February 10, 1996; enlarged May 11, 2006)
David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
[Note: I am not endorsing the source-organization of the above citation; I believe David Cloud has given an accurate, or reasonably accurate for our purposes, summary of the multiple editions of the Koine text commonly referred to as “The Received Text” aka “Textus Receipts” that distinguishes it from another widely used apparatus known as “The Critical Text” which underlies many modern translations. The differences between the various editions of “The Received Text” and between any of which and, together, with “The Critical Text” is a subject of intense opinions. Our purposes here on this site is the tools and use of whatever Koine text the reader believes to be most accurate. In the vast, vast, majority of passages, the differences are small and inconsequential, though fierce, sometimes revilingly fierce, opinions are voiced to the contrary.]

Gloss Source Text

In parentheses adjoining each Koine word is a gloss English word (or phrase). The source of the each respective gloss appears to be the KJV, though which vintage of KJV is not identified. Again, as discussed in the citation above, there have been multiple versions of the Authorized Version (AV), aka KJV.

Underlying Strong’s Numbers and Word Helps

Each word given in blue font, and underlined, is a hot link to an underlying text within the app that gives the Strong’s number, and a very brief description of the Koine word form and a slightly expanded definition. An example for the Koine word translated “imitators” is given below:

Screenshot of hotline for “imitators” in Ephesians 5:1. [What appears on each such page depends on the chosen default font size. So in the above, there is one line at the top that is the trailing text of the previous Koine word, and the Koine word for the hot linked “imitators” is then “g3401” which is Strong’s G3401.]

The above gives almost no information about the respective Koine word. For G3401, it can be discerned that it is the verb form–from the reference to “middle voice” (“voice” is only relevant to verbs) and the shown KJV translation “follow” which is a recognizable verb.

The Koine word directly below, G3402, is from the same root, and is an adjective, but both observations are on the reader to discern.

As shown, the Strong’s information identifies the number of NT occurrences, but it does not give their citations. These can be easily found, as discussed elsewhere, by doing a web search for “Strongs G3401” or even just…strongs g3401…or even…g3401.

Finding kai

As one of our purposes, KAIStudies, is finding the Koine word “kai,” this KIKJV app is very simple and useful. Looking at the first screenshot pasted above, one can readily find all the occurrences of “kai:” including the four in Eph 5:2 (as discussed in a separate post).

Note that no hot link to the Strong’s number for kai is provided, nor any supporting information. As shown in the adjoining parenthesis for Eph 5:2, kai is translation both by “and” and “also,” again as discussed elsewhere.

Throughout KAIStudies, I contend that at each “kai” occurrence one is well served to pause and consider how “kai” as the important ‘hinge’ connector can deepen the understanding of the text, just as the KJV translators did by using “also” where it did and “and” in the ‘default’ examples. A starting point for thinking, as proposed on this website, it to consider kai to be potentially an ‘arrow’ from what precedes to to what follows. However, kai as an arrow does not customarily convey the strong idea of cause/effect, but a more subtle “this unto that,” where “unto” might be the best default translation.

So, for example, kai as the first word of Eph 5:2 does more than just ‘add” the command verb “walk” with “in love” as a mere appendage to the text of Eph 5:1. Rather, there is something much deeper being conveyed, namely: that as “children” who are “beloved” (Eph 5:1) it follows in more than just some random next thought to “walk in love” (Eph 5:2). kai here is not being used to convey cause/effect, but to express the idea that from the significance of our being beloved children these should be an expectation that we “walk” and do so in a certain manner of being (“in love”). Accordingly, an effective ‘translation’ would be a right-ward facing arrow (were we bold enough to use symbols for meaning), or confined to an English word, “unto” is better than the generic “and” as shown above and in almost all English translations.

This is the first in a series of posts on accessible KAIS Tools available as “apps,” software, or URLs on the Internet. All of such posts are brief overviews, not exhaustive reviews. The goal here is to introduce the distinctive value of each example tool and an example usage, in accordance with the overall goal of this website–Koine Accessible Insights. All apps and software cited here are from within the Macintosh OS, iOS “ecosystem.”

Scripture Direct (SD)

Scripture Direct is a free, iPhone and iPad downloadable app. It is also available for the Mac OD by submitting one’s EM and activating Scripture Direct’s “license key” and downloading the software. However, by default on the Mac it cannot be installed because the software is from an “unidentified developer,” and presumably not assured to be safe.

Architecture of Scripture Direct (SD)

Scripture Direct (hereafter SD) is a phrase by phrase interlinear of the Koine in Koine (Greek) script in the Koine mss word order, with an English translation directly below. It is believed that the Koine is NA27. The English translation is one done by SD, so it is not one of the ‘standard’ English translations.

The architecture is particularly helpful because it presents an overview of all the sections (pericopes) of the respective Bible book, which is of course an interpretation, and within each section the phrasing, again another interpretation. And the headings of the sections are likewise SD’s own interpretative summary. All of this seems well-done, but as discussed elsewhere all divisions, including verses and chapters, and section headings (pericope titles) are always an interpretation as none such are part of the mss.

Shown below is how SD presents Ephesians (as far as the screen grab pictures it):

SD Ephesians 5:1-2

Drilling down on two particular verses, Eph 5:1-2, SD provides the below:

As shown above, SD presents the Koine mss in a series of phrases with each phrase given an English word translation directly below. Such phrasing is not “versified” but the respective verse from which the phrases are segmented is always shown. This is an extremely useful feature as it enables grasping the Koine in accessible units (phrases).

It is extremely helpful to know the Koine Greek alphabet and be able to pronounce the mss words even if one does not know the meaning of any particular word, or any word at all. However it is in not essential to have such knowledge as shown below.

SD Ephesians 5:1 Drill Down to Koine Word Form and Translation of “Imitators”

By single clicking on a Koine word, SD underlines such word and the English word translated from it. By double-clicking SD also opens a screen of expanded information showing (1) the word “morphology” and (2) a lexicon definition. Shown below is the result of double-clicking on the important word “imitators” in Eph 5:1.

The highlighted Koine word is shown to be translated by “imitators” and upon the second click SD gives the word form in the mss–namely that the word is a noun, in the nominative case, in the plural masculine form. The Koine in Greek alphabet, is shown within the dark blue banner above with the root word of “imitators” with its genitive case ending (transliterating it here “ou”) and “m” for masculine; such word summary is a standard lexical entry.

Shown in the light blue banner is the category, “imitator,” to which this word belongs (obvious in this example) according to the particular lexicon used by SD, namely “Louw Nida” (LN). The LN lexicon as discussed elsewhere has a very particular, and very useful, form known as “semantic domains.” So, here, SD gives the “LN Number,” namely 41.45. LN and semantic domains is discussed elsewhere on this site.

Clicking yet a third time, this on “imitator” in the light blue banner does to the LN lexicon as shown below:

Louw Nida (LN) Lexicon entry for “imitator”

As above, LN provides an English translation (“meaning), and brief explanation, and other Bible Koine examples. This particular example is very simple because the word it simple to translated, but the understanding and living out is a epically deep idea.

Although not specific to SD, it is worth observing the following. One can think of two categories of Koine word complexity: complex and simple. And one can think of two categories of putting Scripture into life-practice / meaning, again complex and simple. This gives us four combinations.

	Simple Koine	Complex Koine
Simple Significance	SK:SS	CK:SS
Complex Significance	SK:CS	CK:CS

Categorizing Interpretative Contexts Based upon Relative Complexity

Our example here with the word “imitator” is SK:CS, meaning the Koine word itself is simple to grasp: we all known what it means to be an “imitator.” But the significance (S) of application is complex, “CS.” What does it really mean, to be an “imitator of God” in one’s Christian life? Eph 5:1-2 helpfully expands on this issue, as discussed in detail in another post, and in a real sense the entire ‘practical’ chapters of Ephesians, namely Ch 4-6, does even further, and the entirety of the Ephesian Epistle still further, and the NT yet further beyond that. The Bible is an endless web of dimensionally connectedness and illumination.

SD Drill Down Eph 5:1 on a Complex Word: “Be”

The below SD screen shot gives the drill down for the verb in Eph 5:1, “be:”

Double clicking on the first Koine word in Eph 5:1, shows it to be translated by the word “be.” Clicking again then gives the LN lexicon semantic categories to which such word could fit. The multiplicity of such categories contrasts with the above drill down on “imitators” showing that “be” though just a small two-letter word is one of potential great complexity.

Shown directly below the dark blue banner is the word morphology: it is a verb, in the imperative “mood” (command form), in the present “tense” (or “aspect”), 2nd person plural (meaning ‘you-all’) and the middle voice (discussed elsewhere, basically meaning active voice reflexing back onto oneself). As discussed elsewhere, Koine verbs have a much richer morphology than nouns as they disclose many different dimensions of actions or being.

Shown below the morphology line are all the LN categories into which “be” could ‘fit’ depending upon the context (all in the judgment of Dr.s Louw and Nida, creator of this semantic domain lexicon). Highlight in the light blue banner is LN 13.3 which is the believed appropriate category.

And by clicking on the recommended LN category, the lexicon gives the meaning, translation, and examples shown above.

Verbs of being, such as “be,” are very common in Koine and English, intuitively understood, but complex is range of meaning as well as application significance.

SD and Identifying “kai” in Contexts

As discussed elsewhere, the extremely common, and well-worth knowing, Koine word “kai” is obscured in English translations. For this KAIS website, we assume that the reader is not a fluent Koine reader or scholar. So one challenge then is identifying where “kai” occurs and then considering how the various English translations handle (or ignore) such key word, and what deeper insight might be appropriate for its use regardless of the word used to translate it.

SD can be very helpful in such task of finding “kai” wherever it occurs. The below is again from SD for Eph 5:1-2 as it is phrased in SD:

Because “kai” is always in a simple form (that is, it is never inflected by various endings and prefixes), and its Koine letters mirror their English equivalents (k-a-i), identifying all the kai’s in a phrase, or verse, using SD is straightforward. Shown above, there are four kai’s in Eph 5:1-2: in the phrases 5:2a, 5:2b, 5:2c, and finally in 5:2d. As discussed in a separate post drilling down on these two verses, such kai’s carry a deeper meaning (in my view) than suggested by the simple, straightforward, and not wrong, translation of “and”in uses 1, 3, and 4 above, and by its more refined interpretation by Dr. Louw (who did the English translation in SD) with “also” for kai in its the second occurrence.

So, if for no other use, SD can be used to find the Koine kai in any text of interest, requiring no other extraction of the SD lexical or morphological features.

Drilling down on LN’s lexicon on the first use of kai in Eph 5:2, we have the below:

LN Lexicon on the particular use of kai in Eph 5:2a

As discussed everywhere on this site, kai can have a much richer range of application and understanding than the brief summary given here in the LN lexicon for this particular use. As shown in the LN categories, it distinguishes give kinds of usages for kai, the simplest being the default “and.” All such distinctions are interpretations based upon the context as the morphology of kai gives no such conveyance. We will expand on such LN categories for kai in other discussions on this website.

KAIS Tools: Kindle Interlinear Geek New Testament (KJV)