OU DUNATAI hAMARTIAN in 1 John 3:9

Steven Craig Miller scmiller at www.plantnet.com
Wed Oct 20 13:08:38 EDT 1999


To: Steve Long,

Jay Adkins: << 1Joh 3:9 (GNT) PAS hO GEGENNHMENOS EK TOU QEOU hAMARTIAN OU 
POIEI, hOTI SPERMA AUTOU EN AUTWi MENEI, KAI OU DUNATAI hAMARTIAN, hOTI EK 
TOU QEOU GEGENNHTAI. 1 John 3:9 All the ones having been born from God do 
not sin habitually, because His seed is abiding in him, and he is not able 
to sin continuously, because he has been born from God. >>

SCM: << . If we had: hAMARTIAN POIEI ("he/she does sin"), surely it is 
possible to understand this as referring to habitual action. Now lets 
negate the sentence (as it appears in the Greek text): hAMARTIAN OU POIEI 
("he/she does not sin"). Now, are we to understand this to mean that this 
person does indeed occasionally sin, but just doesn't do it habitually? 
Personally, I find such reasoning to be a real stretch. >>

SL: << Is it possible that the grammar is not the key here, but the 
lexicology? I would read POIEI as a purposeful making of sin, a deliberate 
desire to do something wrong. So loosely translated it would be "No one who 
is born of God deliberately sets out to do the wrong thing, because God's 
essential life lives in him. He has no real ability to do the wrong thing 
because he is born of God." The emphasis is on the intention of the heart, 
rather than habitual or occasional actions. >>

 From what lexicon did you get that? Could you give another example where 
OU POIEI or OU DUNATAI refers to someone who does something, but not 
deliberately?

-Steven Craig Miller
Alton, Illinois (USA)
scmiller at www.plantnet.com

 From Luther's Large Catechism: "Why, do you think, is the world now so 
full of unfaithfulness, shame, misery, and murder? It is because everyone 
wishes to be his or her own master, be free from all authority, care 
nothing for anyone, and do whatever he or she pleases. So God punishes one 
knave by means of another" (BoC 386.154).



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