Regarding Romans 1:13 οὐ θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν ἀδελφοί ὅτι πολλάκις προεθέμην ἐλθεῖν πρὸς ὑμᾶς καὶ ἐκωλύθην ἄχρι τοῦ δεῦρο ἵνα καρπὸν τινὰ σχῶ καὶ ἐν ὑμῖν καθὼς καὶ ἐν τοῖς λοιποῖς ἔθνεσιν
I would appreciate feedback on my conclusion the construction τοῖς λοιποῖς ἔθνεσιν allows for the possibility Paul intended λοιποῖς not as a modifier of ἔθνεσιν but as a substantive in close apposition with ἔθνεσιν.
In posting this topic, I ask that responders stick to the syntactical possibility, and not turn the post into an exegetical debate.
Having so asked, I will briefly explain my interest. I have not come across any English translations that don’t assume Paul wishes to “have some fruit among you [Roman Gentiles] also, even as [I have] among [Gentiles living eleswhere].” Such translation assumes the Romans Paul writes are Gentile Christians.
My research on this verse works to help reject that assumption, as I believe much evidence exists throughout the letter to support Paul’s recipients as being primarily Jewish believers and he’s careful to point out any direct address to Gentiles (11:13), Proselytes or not, that might hear his letter read.
Here’s my reasoning:
—The use of the dative-plural-neutral sets up a polydefinite (to other, to nations)
—articular adjectives in the first attribute (in this instance, only attribute) position are substantival
—Relying on the research of Lekakou and Szenrői (1) this instance fits nicely into their two-definite DP as close appositive model
—Jews would have understood the noun ellipsis at “others” even without the clarifying appositive, as ethnically they saw themselves as called out from and not numbered among the nations (Numbers 23:9) Others is being used and “heard” to Paul’s readers as a restrictive people group in the manner the Many, the Wicked, the Proud, etc.
—Paul’s choice of λοιποῖς and not ἀλλὰ (another of the same kind) would have further been recognized as a distinction to Jews—-i.e. “There’s ‘us’ and then there’s everyone else “the remaining nations.”
—Again, realizing this final point rests on my assumption of a Jewish audience, verse 13 can be seen as drawing on the context established in verses 5-6—- In verse 6a ἐν οἷς ἐστε καὶ ὑμεῖς, Paul establishes his recipients of the letter as a group living among another group. It would be a distinction without a difference if Paul is writing to Gentile Romans. In verse 13, Paul likewise distinguishes between two different groups not a subset of same.
I would appreciate any critique/criticism of assuming the close appositive in verse 13.
(1) I quote the entire abstract of Lekakou and Szenrői:
“In this paper we propose a treatment of Greek polydefinites as an instance of
close apposition, as in Burns the poet. We argue that like close appositives,
Greek polydefinites consist of two DPs, the only difference being that one of
them contains noun ellipsis. We propose that both polydefinites and close ap-
positives involve a process of Referential-role identification, in the spirit of the
proposal by Higginbotham (1985) for theta-role identification in cases of ad-
jectival modification. We show that our proposal can shed light on the ordering
freedom of polydefinites, their discourse properties, the kind of adjectives that
can appear in the construction, as well as the lack of polyindefinites.“
https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/publications ... endroi.pdf
An even more detailed study—same topic, same authors—-can be found here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41502417
Paul’s use of close apposition in Romans 1:13
Forum rules
Please quote the Greek text you are discussing directly in your post if it is reasonably short - do not ask people to look it up. This is not a beginner's forum, competence in Greek is assumed.
Please quote the Greek text you are discussing directly in your post if it is reasonably short - do not ask people to look it up. This is not a beginner's forum, competence in Greek is assumed.
Re: Paul’s use of close apposition in Romans 1:13
This interpretation aligns with the concept of Greek polydefinites as instances of close apposition, as explored by Lekakou and Szendrői.An even more detailed study—same topic, same authors—-can be found here: https://www.jstor.snake game.org/stable/41502417
-
- Posts: 1009
- Joined: June 2nd, 2011, 5:28 pm
- Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
- Contact:
Re: Paul’s use of close apposition in Romans 1:13
I checked online to see that Lekakou and Szendrői were real authors that wrote about definiteness, and for that reason I approved your post. I would ask that you start an introduction post in the Introductions on the forum. Please include your name, and let us know what username you would like to use that conforms to the forum policy on usernames.irkysecr wrote: ↑March 27th, 2025, 2:38 amThis interpretation aligns with the concept of Greek polydefinites as instances of close apposition, as explored by Lekakou and Szendrői.An even more detailed study—same topic, same authors—-can be found here: https://www.jstor.snake game.org/stable/41502417
Thanks and welcome!
Jason A. Hare
The Hebrew Café
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
Tel Aviv, Israel