1 Cor. 10:13

Mark Wilson emory2002 at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 26 09:50:35 EDT 2000



>April Vanbibber

>In the last phrase THN EKBASIN TOU DUNASTHAI hUPENEKEIN, does He >provide
>a way out of the temptation SO THAT we will be able to endure, or (as >I'm
>thinking) is the ability to endure, itself, the way out?


April:

I do not know if hUPOFERW is a synonym of hUPOMENW. If it is, then this may 
assuage a previous responder's concern.

But personally I think your thinking here reflects reality. Concerning 
hUPOMENW, I ran across this from C. Spicq:

"endurance refers not just to the human virtue of fortitude by which one 
bears up under adversity; it designates, rather, the obedient faith of those 
who can rejoice, precisely in the midst of adversity."

Hence, perhaps the THN EKBASIN is “bearing the weight of the trial by 
staying focused on God.”

I think the use of SUN, in ALLA POIHSEI SUN TWi PEIRASMWi, may imply 
"accompaniment." That would lend additional support to the idea that this 
THN EKBASIN does not mean to "exit" from the temptation, but to "endure" 
ALONG WITH the temptation. If the idea was that the THN EKBASIN was to be 
brought “out of” the temptation, would not EK or some other preposition have 
been used?

I would also add that TOU + Inf., according to my grammar books, does denote 
"result," as well as “purpose.” Purpose is used more often, but not to the 
extent that Result is rare. Context seems to be how to determine which is 
being employed.

If this is "result," maybe it would mean that God does provide this "way 
out," not so as to remove us from (EK) the temptation, but in accompaniment 
(SUN) with the temptation.

So that you might have something like:

God will provide the way out, with the result that you will be able to bear 
it even as it intensifies.

I wonder if THN EKBASIN would correspond to Paul’s famous thorn passage. 
Could it be that THN EKBASIN is the assurance that God’s grace is 
sufficient?

All this is to say that I would not see a need for us to endure a temptation 
once God removes us from it; we need only to hUPOFERW during the trial. Once 
God provides the way out, we no longer would need his enablement to endure 
it.

This was a good exercise for me. I still am fairly new to Greek so I am 
hoping others more advanced will comment on my ideas.

Thank you,

Mark Wilson




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