Romans 13: 11-14
[11]Καὶ τοῦτο, εἰδότες τὸν καιρόν, ὅτι ὥρα ἡμᾶς ἤδη ἐξ ὕπνου ἐγερθῆναι· νῦν γὰρ ἐγγύτερον ἡμῶν ἡ σωτηρία ἢ ὅτε ἐπιστεύσαμεν. [12]ἡ νὺξ προέκοψεν, ἡ δὲ ἡμέρα ἤγγικεν. ἀποθώμεθα οὖν τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκότους καὶ ἐνδυσώμεθα τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ φωτός. [13]ὡς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ εὐσχημόνως περιπατήσωμεν μὴ κώμοις καὶ μέθαις, μὴ κοίταις καὶ ἀσελγείαις, μὴ ἔριδι καὶ ζήλῳ, [14]ἀλλ᾿ ἐνδύσασθε τὸν Κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν, καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς πρόνοιαν μὴ ποιεῖσθε εἰς ἐπιθυμίας.
Romans 13:11-14
13:11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;
13:12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;
13:13 let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
13:14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Comments
[11] εἰδότες τὸν καιρόν, ὅτι ὥρα: εἰδότες = nomin. pl. present tense participle of oἶδα, ‘I know’. The context suggests that εἰδότες is causal, i.e. ‘because you (pl.) know’.
τὸν καιρόν: καιρός here = ‘critical time’, as in class. Greek (cf. LSJ s.v.). For theologians the term is eschatological (see Balz-Schneider, Exeg. Dict. NT Greek [henceforth EDNTG], s.v. καιρός, p. 233).
ὅτι ὥρα: sc. ἐστι. ὥρα in koine Greek is the ‘time of the day’, one of the twelve equal divisions of the day (cf. LSJ s.v.), i.e. ‘hour’.
ἡμᾶς ἤδη ἐξ ὕπνου ἐγερθῆναι (‘for us already/now to rise from sleep’), which immediately follows, confirms this sense. It is time now to rise from sleep! It is time to wake up!
εἰδότες τὸν καιρόν, ὅτι ὥρα, etc. is a typical proleptic (‘foreshadowing’) construction: ‘because you know the time, that it is now the hour for us to rise.’ The proleptic construction suggests that ὥρα– hourglass time—is really meant in an eschatological sense.
νῦν: coming at the beginning of the sentence, the adverb is emphatic; it reinforces ἤδη in the preceding sentence, enhancing its reverberations.
ἐπιστεύσαμεν: aor. of πιστεύω, ‘Ι believe’. ‘EDNTG, s.v. πιστεύω, p. 93: ‘In the aor. πιστεύω becomes a technical term for coming to faith = ‘becoming a Christian.’
* I translate: ‘And this [you should do, i.e. love one another], because you know the (critical, decisive) moment—that it is time for us now to wake from sleep.’
[12] ἡ νὺξ προέκοψεν: aor. of προκόπτω, ‘go forward, advance’, intrans. Originally a sea captain’s term, the verb is colloquial in Hellenistic Greek (EDNTG, s.v., p. 157).
ἡ δὲ ἡμέρα ἤγγικεν: 3rd pers. sg.,perfect tense < ἐγγίζω, intrans. in the NT, ‘come near’ (EDNTG, s.v., pp. 370-1).
The two parallel sentences contain contrasting members, night and day.
ἀποθώμεθα οὖν τὰ ἔργα τοῦ σκότους καὶ ἐνδυσώμεθα τὰ ὅπλα τοῦ φωτός: the (postpositive) particle οὖν introduces an inference (= ‘therefore’): the approach of ‘ the day’ means that we must carry out two opposite actions, expressed as parallel exhortations (in the ‘hortatory’ subjunctive) that rest on stark contrasts. The verbs used refer literally to clothes or equipment, and are antonyms. Thus:
ἀποθώμεθα, 1st pers. pl. aor. subj. < ἀποτίθεμαι, ‘put off, take off, lay aside’ (EDNTG, s.v., p. 146). The figurative use of the vb as here is predominant in the NT (ibid.). ‘Let us take off the works of darkness.’
ἐνδυσώμεθα, 1st pers. pl. aor. subj. < ἐνδύομαι, ‘Ι put on myself, dress’, middle voice.
‘Take off’ and ‘works of darkness’ are contrasted to ‘Put on’ and ‘weapons of light’.
[13] περιπατήσωμεν μὴ κώμοις καὶ μέθαις, μὴ κοίταις καὶ ἀσελγείαις, μὴ ἔριδι καὶ ζήλῳ: another exhortation in the subj. aor. follows; a classical author would probably have used a connective, say, δέ, after ὡς to smoothen the transition from the preceding exhortations.
περιπατήσωμεν: ‘let us walk’ (< περιπατέω/ῶ) is used in the figurative sense (implying conduct or a way of life) which is common only St John’s writings and in St Paul (EDNTG, s.v., p. 75). The metaphor can be matched in the OT, and has some analogues in Greek philosophy.
μὴ κώμοις καὶ μέθαις: ὁ κῶμος = ‘band of drunken revellers’ connected with the cult of Dionysus, the symposium, or its rowdy aftermath; it is related to the word for ‘comedy’, κωμῳδία. It is no surprise that here the term is conjoined to μέθαις, pl. dat., μέθη, ‘drunkenness’. The pl. μέθαις magnifies the sense of the sg.
μὴ κοίταις καὶ ἀσελγείαις: ἡ κοίτη, a euphemism for ‘sexual intercourse’ (EDNTG, s.v., p.305); LSJ are more precise: ‘lasciviousness’. The pl. κοίταις suggests manifold acts of sexual licence. ἀσελγείαις (dat. pl.), which is combined with its near-synonym κοίταις, means ‘sexual debauchery’, and is likewise given comprehensiveness through the plural (‘all manner of debauchery’).
μὴ ἔριδι καὶ ζήλῳ: a third pair of interrelated terms, this time in the singular, caps the list of types of behaviour to avoid. Each pair is negated by means of μή, creating a string of do NOTs.
[14[ ἀλλ᾿ ἐνδύσασθε τὸν Κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν: This isthe message as it were of the pericope, delivered as a command (in the imperative). It picks up the clothing metaphors in v. 12.
Vv. 13-14 amount to: ‘Let us do not A nor B nor C, but you (pl.) put on the Lord Jesus Christ…’ St Paul switches from the first person plural (‘Let us…’) to a command addressed to a plural ‘you’.
Donning Jesus Christ is metaphor and image that theologians can best interpret.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 