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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