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The average reader who may have been led to think that 'out of' is the
only unquestioned rendering of ek, may feel a trifle surprised to hear that,
while in the great majority of cases 'out of' is the best rendering, that it
also is rendered 'by means of' once, 'through' twice, 'with' twenty -five
times, 'by' fifty -five times, 'by reason of' three times, 'because of' three
times, or eighty -nine times in all.
Take the rendering 'with'.
Matt. 27:7. 'They ... bought with them the potter's field'.
Mark 12:30. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength'.
John 4:6.
'Wearied with His journey'.
John 12:3. 'Filled with the odour'.
Rev. 17:2 -6. 'Drunk with the wine ... with the blood of the saints'.
It would be quite easy to insert 'with' in some passages where it would
be absurd, but that would not prove the above passages to be wrongly
translated. Again, look at the passages where ek is rendered 'by'.
Matt. 12:33.'The tree is known by his fruit'.
Matt. 12:37.'By thy words thou shalt be justified'.
Acts 19:25. 'By this craft'.
Rom. 2:27. 'Uncircumcision which is by nature'.
Titus 3:5. 'Not by works of righteousness'.
1 John 3:24. 'By the Spirit'.
Rev. 9:18. 'By the fire ... which issued out of their mouths'. (Here
in Rev. 9:18 ek is rightly rendered 'by' and 'out of' in
the one verse).
Revelation 8:13 renders ek, 'by reason of'. One could not very well
translate, 'woe to the inhabiters of the earth out of the other voices',
unless we intended by 'out of' origin, cause, or occasion. Again in
Revelation 9:2 and 18:19 it is rendered, 'by reason of'.
To translate ek, 'out of', in 2 Corinthians 1:11 would be manifestly
unscriptural, for the gift of the apostle Paul was 'by means of', not 'out
of', many persons. In Revelation 16:11 we read, 'and blasphemed the God of
heaven because of their pains and because of their sores'. 'Out of' as
meaning place would be untrue, 'out of' as meaning origin or cause would be
true and better expressed in English by 'because of'. To translate ek in
Philippians 1:23, 'out of' is only possible if we mean origin or cause. To
use 'out of' as meaning place is contrary to the meaning of the word rendered
'press', which everywhere demands the idea, to hold fast, to keep in, to
constrain.
The A.V. rendering 'betwixt' is perhaps a little free, but conveys the
meaning of the passage (Dr. Bullinger's Lexicon gives 'literally, constrained
by'), whereas 'out of', while literally and etymologically true, would be in
reality false. 'By reason of' is the most suitable rendering. J. N. Darby's
rendering, 'I am pressed by both', is true to the meaning, although rather
free in the use of the word 'both'. Paul was held in some suspense 'by
reason of the two'. He was not pressed out of the two into some hypothetical
'third' -- that is an invention. He immediately places before us 'the two'
and his double feelings can be easily understood.