Rom 5:15 ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἕνὸς ἄνθρωπου

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Stephen Carlson
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Rom 5:15 ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἕνὸς ἄνθρωπου

Post by Stephen Carlson »

Chris Tilling on his Chrisendom blog has a post about the Greek of Rom 5:25. Tilling is asking about the role of the dative article τῇ following χάριτι, but I want to ask a different question.
Rom 5:15 wrote:Ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὡς τὸ παράπτωμα, οὕτως καὶ τὸ χάρισμα· εἰ γὰρ τῷ τοῦ ἑνὸς παραπτώματι οἱ πολλοὶ ἀπέθανον, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἡ δωρεὰ ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπερίσσευσεν.
Usually, this verse is construed by taking the bold preposition phrase to modify ἡ δωρεά, yielding a translation like "... how much more has the grace of God and the gift by grace which is of one person Jesus Christ abound to the many," but I'm wondering if the that preposition phrase is adverbial, so that it would mean something like "... how much has God's grace and gift abounded to the many in/by the grace of the one person Jesus Christ."

We have just had an earlier thread, The Adjectival Use of Prepositional Phrases, where the claim was made that post-nominal prepositional phrases are only adjectival if preceded by the article.

Thoughts?
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
David Lim
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Joined: June 6th, 2011, 6:55 am

Re: Rom 5:15 ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἕνὸς ἄνθρωπου

Post by David Lim »

Stephen Carlson wrote:
Rom 5:15 wrote:Ἀλλ᾽ οὐχ ὡς τὸ παράπτωμα, οὕτως καὶ τὸ χάρισμα· εἰ γὰρ τῷ τοῦ ἑνὸς παραπτώματι οἱ πολλοὶ ἀπέθανον, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἡ δωρεὰ ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπερίσσευσεν.
Usually, this verse is construed by taking the bold preposition phrase to modify ἡ δωρεά, yielding a translation like "... how much more has the grace of God and the gift by grace which is of one person Jesus Christ abound to the many," but I'm wondering if the that preposition phrase is adverbial, so that it would mean something like "... how much has God's grace and gift abounded to the many in/by the grace of the one person Jesus Christ."

We have just had an earlier thread, The Adjectival Use of Prepositional Phrases, where the claim was made that post-nominal prepositional phrases are only adjectival if preceded by the article.

Thoughts?
Yes I think that taking "εν χαριτι τη του ενος ανθρωπου ιησου χριστου" to be adverbial agrees well with both the context and structure of Rom 5:15-18:

(I have moved post-positives in front)
- αλλ
- {
- - { ουχ ως { το παραπτωμα } }
- - { ουτως και { το χαρισμα } }
- - [εστιν]
- }
- γαρ
- {
- - ει
- - {
- - - ( τω του ενος παραπτωματι )
- - - { οι πολλοι }
- - - απεθανον
- - }
- - {
- - - ( πολλω μαλλον )
- - - { { η χαρις του θεου } και { η δωρεα } }
- - - ( εν χαριτι τη του ενος ανθρωπου ιησου χριστου )
- - - ( εις τους πολλους )
- - - επερισσευσεν
- - }
- }
- και
- {
- - ( ουχ ως ( δι ενος αμαρτησαντος ) )
- - { το δωρημα }
- - [εστιν]
- }
- γαρ
- {
- - μεν { το κριμα }
- - ( εξ ενος )
- - ( εις κατακριμα )
- - [εστιν]
- - δε { το χαρισμα }
- - ( εκ πολλων παραπτωματων )
- - ( εις δικαιωμα )
- - [εστιν]
- }
γαρ
{
- ει
- {
- - ( τω του ενος παραπτωματι )
- - { ο θανατος }
- - εβασιλευσεν
- - ( δια του ενος )
- }
- {
- - ( πολλω μαλλον )
- - { οι { την περισσειαν { της χαριτος και της δωρεας της δικαιοσυνης } } λαμβανοντες }
- - ( εν ζωη )
- - βασιλευσουσιν
- - ( δια του ενος ιησου χριστου )
- }
}
αρα
{
- ουν
- {
- - ως
- - { ( δι ενος παραπτωματος ) ( εις παντας ανθρωπους ) ( εις κατακριμα ) [εστιν] }
- - ουτως και
- - { δι ενος δικαιωματος ) ( εις παντας ανθρωπους ) ( εις δικαιωσιν ζωης ) [εστιν] }
- }
}

The writer compares "το παραπτωμα του ενος ανθρωπου αδαμ" and "το χαρισμα το του ενος ανθρωπου ιησου χριστου", saying that by the first, "οι πολλοι απεθανον", but by the second, "η χαρις του θεου και η δωρεα επερισσευσεν εις τους πολλους", and that "το κριμα [του παραπτωματος]" is "εξ ενος εις κατακριμα" but "το χαρισμα [του δικαιωματος]" is "εκ πολλων παραπτωματων εις δικαιωμα", and that by the first, "ο θανατος εβασιλευσεν δια του ενος αδαμ", but those who receive the second "εν ζωη βασιλευσουσιν δια του ενος ιησου χριστου".
δαυιδ λιμ
Stephen Carlson
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Re: Rom 5:15 ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἕνὸς ἄνθρωπου

Post by Stephen Carlson »

MOD Note: I split off the thread on the theoretical status of prepositional phrases here: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/vie ... 3&start=10
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
Stirling Bartholomew
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Re: Rom 5:15 ἐν χάριτι τῇ τοῦ ἕνὸς ἄνθρωπου

Post by Stirling Bartholomew »

Stephen,

The other thread which is locked for reasons not hard to understand. I don't think that constructions like we find in Rom. 5:15 are totally absent from Classical authors. After a little work I found a discussion of this in Cooper who suggested that this particular form of syntactical ambiguity (he calls it ambivalence) is not always an accident. G. L. Cooper (Attic Greek Syntax, v. 1, 50.8.15 pp. 439-44.) in reference primarily to Attic Tragedy (Sophocles) and Thucydides states that both adverbs and prepositional phrases are used attributively with substantives without repetition of the article to make attribution clear. But even when the parallel structure makes attribution “certain” the adverbial nature of these expressions is not entirely lost. Often adverbs and prepositional phrases are used “ ... with deliberate ambivalence between adverbial and adnominal status.” S.Tr 149, S.OT 55, S.EL 61, S.OC 586, Th. 4.10.4, 4.96.3, 6.10.2.

It should be noted that the sparing use of the article in Attic Tragedy makes for a lot of ambiguity in regard to substantives with attributive and predicative constituents.

Paul is capable of intentional leaving his statements fuzzy around the edges.

C. Stirling Bartholomew
C. Stirling Bartholomew
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