# kingdom of God within/among you?



## CharlieJ (Dec 7, 2008)

I am looking into Luke 17:21, which states that the kingdom of God is within you/ among you/ in your midst. 

The relevant Greek phrase is ENTOS hUMWN (I don't know how to use Greek script here).

Oddly, I can't find any occurrence of ENTOS meaning "among" or "in the midst of." The only other use in the NT is Matthew 23:26, where it refers to the inside of a cup.

I found 8 uses in the LXX, 7 seem to be "inside." The other 1 I had trouble reading (Daniel 10:16).


So, where is the rendering "among" coming from? The only thing I can think of is that all these examples are in the singular. Is it being assumed that in the plural ENTOS can function like EN, meaning "among"?

Oh, I also checked LSJ through Perseus, which didn't list any kind of "among" meaning. Are there any other lexical sources that do?


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## Jon Lake (Dec 7, 2008)




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## CharlieJ (Dec 7, 2008)

bump?


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## Prufrock (Dec 7, 2008)

Yes, "among you" is a perfectly valid translation.

I would say that it's not really "oddly enough" that you can't find it meaning 'among' anywhere else, since, as you acknowledge, it's only used in one other place.

As you noted you were looking for lexicon confirmation: BDAG lists this passage as either _within you, in your hearts_ or _among you, in your midst_. It is a perfectly natural translation -- to be within a group of people just as easily indicates _to be within the bounds of you all_ as to mean _located internally in each one of you separately_.

Hope that helps.


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## CharlieJ (Dec 8, 2008)

Prufrock said:


> I would say that it's not really "oddly enough" that you can't find it meaning 'among' anywhere else, since, as you acknowledge, it's only used in one other place.



Haha. That does sound funny. I was including the LXX and classical references I checked, but I guess that idea didn't get across in the post.



Prufrock said:


> As you noted you were looking for lexicon confirmation: BDAG lists this passage as either _within you, in your hearts_ or _among you, in your midst_.



Are you using 3rd edition? I'm not thrilled with their interpretive glosses. 2nd edition seems a bit skeptical about that rendering, though they do give that as an option, along with a long bibliography.



Prufrock said:


> It is a perfectly natural translation -- to be within a group of people just as easily indicates _to be within the bounds of you all_ as to mean _located internally in each one of you separately_.



This makes sense. I can see the idea relationship, and the parallel with EN helps. I would feel better about it if I could find somewhere in Koine (or even Attic) a parallel passage. Luke is a classy writer, grammatically astute with an Attic flair. Whether ENTOS in the plural has a collective or distributive sense would be worth pursuing.

There is another thing bothering me about the translation. If Luke meant "among you" or "in your midst," why choose this rare word? Luke usually clearly expresses a locative idea with EN MESWi, which occurs 11 times in Luke-Acts. Or for a less truly locative idea, EN + personal pronoun, which occurs 20 times in Luke-Acts. Was ENTOS chosen perhaps for emphasis, or so there wouldn't be such ambiguity?


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