Re. CWRIS DE PISTEWS ADUNATON EUARESTHSAI PISTEUSAI... Heb. 11:6

Ben Crick ben.crick at argonet.co.uk
Thu Jul 2 20:47:07 EDT 1998


On Thu  2 Jul 98 (11:25:41), evans at wilmington.net wrote:
> CWRIS DE PISTEWS ADUNATON EUARESTHSAI PISTEUSAI GAR DEI TON
> PROSERCOMENON TW QEW HOTI ESTIN KAI TOIS EKZHTOUSIN AUTON MISQAPODOTHS
> GINETAI
[snip] 
> The first part of the sentence, CWRIS DE PISTEWS ADUNATON EUARESTHSAI,
> seems abrupt and incomplete.  It begin a thought which never really
> comes to completion unless somehow the later dative TW QEW linked to
> the infinitive somehow.  Or is it more likely that God is implied by
> the earlier reference to Enoch having pleased (same word) God?

 Dear Paul

 Yes, the style is a bit telegrammatic. There are some minor textual
 variants (see the Apparatus Criticus), but they do not change the sense.
 The wording is in part a quotation of or an allusion to Genesis 5:24 LXX:
 the real canonical Enoch, not the pseudepigraphical one.

 The previous verse ends with a semicolon, not a period; so the sense runs
 on over the verse division. The /TWi QEWi/ you wondered about is supplied
 from just before the semicolon, at the end of verse 5; or else from the
 next clause following. To repeat TWi QEWi is really rather redundant.
 So construe:

 CWRIS DE PISTEWS          ADUNATON EUARESTHSAI· (notice the semicolon?)
 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [God];

 PISTEUSAI GAR DEI        TON PROSERCOMENON TWi QEWi    hOTI ESTIN,
 for it is necessary for  him coming to God to believe  that He is,

 Here is the Accusative+Infinitive construction; TON PROSERCOMENON is the
 *subject* of the aorist active infinitive PISTEUSAI. The bit after hOTI is
 the content of the belief: His existence. DEI is the impersonal 3rd person
 singular of DEW, to bind, used as a modal auxiliary: "it is a binding
 condition for him coming to God to believe that He is".

 KAI TOIS EKZHTOUSIN AUTON      MISQAPODOTHS  GINETAI.
 and to those seeking Him out   a rewarder    He becomes.

 Geddit?
 ERRWSQE,
 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick at argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm






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