Couple o' quick questions

Eric Weiss eweiss at gte.net
Tue Jun 23 13:28:07 EDT 1998


Jonathan Robie wrote:

> At 10:11 AM 6/23/98 -0700, Eric Weiss wrote:
> >Stephen Long wrote:
> >
> >> Also, is there a rule of translating similar to Occam's Razor,
> >>that the simplest explanation is the most likely?

Re: the Occam's Razor thing. While teaching a class on Romans, when I came to the vexing
question in Romans 7:7-25 about who is Paul talking about, whether it's his pre-Christian
life, his current struggles, etc., I suggested that rather than impose our theological
predispositions and presuppositions that we apply Occam's Razor and see what we get - i.e.,
assume Paul uses the past tense (aorist) when he is speaking about his past and the present
tense when he is speaking about his present situation. I liked the resulting interpretation
and I think J.I. Packer in KEEP IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT concludes the same.

--
"Eric S. Weiss"
eweiss at gte.net
http://home1.gte.net/eweiss/index.htm
S.D.G.





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