Maybe someone here can help me with this. I am translating Ignatius to the Magnesians from the Apostolic Fathers collection, and there is a use of ἔχωμεν that I am unfamiliar with. Here is the phrase from Chapter 5:
ἐὰν μὴ αὐθαιρέτως ἔχωμεν τὸ ἀποθανεῖν εἰς τὸ αὐτοῦ πάθος, τὸ ζῆν αὐτοῦ ἔστιν ἐν ἡμῖν.
Roughly translated: “unless we do/should voluntarily have/hold to die into his suffering, his life is not in us.”
Michael W. Holmes translates it this way: “whose life is not in us unless we voluntarily choose to die into his suffering.” In the context that makes sense, but how is he getting that from exwmen? I’ve seen other translations go with, “unless we are ready to voluntarily die.” Can exw really have the sense of ‘choose’ or ‘ready’? If not, then how should this word be rendered here?
Thanks for any help or suggestions you can give! Feel free to critique the rest of my translation, too. I haven’t gotten much feedback yet, but I’d like to have a few knowledgeable people put in their two cents:
http://www.greekingout.com/groups/translation/docs/ignatius-to-magnesians-translation