First comes first
One of the first things journalism students learn is "the inverted pyramid": they learn to cram all of the most important points of their article into the opening paragraph. In normal English usage, the most important person or thing should go at the head of almost any list.

Biblical Greek employs similar usage: the most important item usually comes first in a list. And because, unlike English, Greek does not need word order to determine how a word is used in a sentence--it has word endings for that--it can leverage word order to indicate emphasis. The beginning and then the end of a sentence, a clause, or a list is the place where the emphasis falls in Greek. Unfortunately, we lose much of this emphasis in English translations, because the translators feel forced to rearrange the words back into normal English order.

Good example of emphatic usage
Consider 1 Corinthians 3:9, which the NIV renders, "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." A more literal rendering would be: "God's fellow workers we are; God's field you are, God's building." Paul is making a triple emphasis that we almost completely lose in English: God is the important One, not what we are or what you are. [TOP]

The context bears out this emphasis. The Corinthian Christians are wrangling about whose group is the best, the one that claims Paul, or that one that names Apollos, or Cephas (Peter), or Christ (see 1:10-12). Apparently, the Corinthians are in danger of splitting into competing factions or sects, each thinking of themselves as superior to the others. Perhaps their fellowship is deteriorating so much that they are discounting their rival factions and even writing them off as no longer members of God's kingdom. Whether that has happened yet, they certainly seem to be moving in that direction.

Paul's antidote to this sectarian poison is pointing all of them to God. He notes that he and Apollos are not in competition or leading rival factions. Instead, he says, "God's servants we are." Similarly, the Corinthians' organic growth as Christians is because "God's field you are." Their organizational growth is because they are "God's building."

God at the center
Here is a lesson for all of us. Let's get our eyes off of ourselves--our status, our achievements, our position relative to someone else--and return to focusing on Him, the one who has "rescued us out of the dominion of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14).

Left to ourselves, we would be a barren field, a collapsed building. But God makes His chosen ones into a verdant paradisial garden, a gloriously splendid temple. Let's give the credit to Whom it belongs.

Want to go deeper? If you want to explore other places where "of God" (tou theou) occurs in an emphatic, first position, look up these verses. You will see how in these instances also, the emphatic word order of the original does not survive the translation process.

• Acts 12:22
• Romans 13:4 (twice)
• 1 Corinthians 1:24 (twice)
• 1 Corinthians 2:7
• 1 Corinthians 6:9
• 2 Corinthians 6:4
• 2 Corinthians 11:2
• 2 Corinthians 11:7
• Ephesians 2:8
• Hebrews 6:5
• James 1:1
• 1 Peter 2:16
• 1 Peter 4:14
• 1 Peter 4:17 (2nd time)
• 2 Peter 3:5
• 2 Peter 3:12
• Jude 4

Here are two more instances, using "Jesus our Lord" (1 Corinthians 9:1) and "of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 10:26), quoting Psalm 24:1. (The Hebrew has the same emphatic word order.)

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has also been a book editor, newspaper reporter, news editor, and public relations consultant. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean.

Go to his DeeperStudy.com for Bible study resources, no matter what your level of expertise. Explore "The Shallows," plumb "The Depths," or use the well-organized "Study Links" for original sources in English translation. Get great bargains at DeeperStudy Bookstore. Sign up for Steve's free "DeeperStudy Newsletter."

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