Ephesians 4:29

πᾶς λόγος σαπρὸς ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκπορευέσθω : let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth. πᾶς … μή, the well-known Hebraistic form, the negative attaching itself to the verb, = “ non-utterance let that be for every corrupt word”. λόγος = word, in the sense of a saying, speech or utterance. σαπρός, lit. rotten or worn out and unfit for use, and then worthless, bad (e.g., qualifying trees, fruit, fish as the opposite of καλός, Matthew 7:17; Matthew 12:33; Matthew 13:48; Luke 6:43, etc.). Here it does not seem to mean filthy, but, as the following clause, ἀγαθός, κ. τ. λ., suggests, bad, profitless, of no good to any one. Some, however, give it the more specific sense, = foul, as including scurrilous and unbecoming utterance (Abb.). ἀλλʼ εἴ τις ἀγαθὸς πρὸς οἰκοδομὴν τῆς χρείας : but such as is good for edification of the need. ἀλλʼ εἴ τις, = but such as, but whatever; lit. = “but if there is any … let it proceed out of your mouth” (Mey.). ἀγαθός with πρός or εἰς is sufficiently frequent in classical Greek in the sense of suitable, serviceable for something (e.g., Plato, Rep., vii., p. 522 A). The phrase οἰκοδομὴν τῆς χρείας is somewhat difficult to construe. Its difficulty probably accounts for the reading πίστεως instead of χρείας in [476] 1 [477], etc. It cannot be dealt with by inversion as it is put in the AV, “to the use of edifying”; nor as equivalent to “those who have need” (Rück.); nor as = “as there may be need” (Erasm., qua sit opus). Neither can it be a gen. of quality, as if = “seasonable edification”. The τῆς must have its full value, especially after the anarthrous οἰκοδομήν; and the χρείας is best taken either as the gen. obj., = “edification applied to the need” (Mey., Alf., Abb.), or the gen. of remote reference (Ell.; cf. Win.-Moult., p. 235), “edification in reference to the need,” i.e., to the present need. So the Vulg. (am.) gives ad aedificationem opportunitatis. ἵνα δῷ χάριν τοῖς ἀκούουσι : that it may give grace to the hearers. So the RV. The AV also gives “minister grace unto the hearers”. The other old English versions likewise render χάριν, grace, except Tynd., who makes it “that it may have favour,” and Cov., who renders it “that it be gracious to hear”. Not a few (Theod., Luth., Rück., etc.) make it = give pleasure. But χάρις usually means favour or benefit, and the phrase διδόναι χάριν expresses the idea of doing a kindness to one (Soph., Ajax., 1333; Plato, Laws, iii., p. 702 c; Exodus 3:21; Psalms 84:11); and in the NT it has this sense with the specific notion of gracious kindness or service (2Co 1:15; 2 Corinthians 8:6; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). So it is here. The λόγος is the subj., and the clause gives the Christian object of every speech or utterance, viz., to do good to the hearers, to impart a blessing to them (Ell.). For words with a different result cf. 2 Timothy 2:14.

[476] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[477] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.