Rom.1:5: hUPAKOH PISTEWS

Mark Wilson emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Sat Sep 9 16:29:23 EDT 2000



Carl:

I have a question, sir.

I said:

> >I might not even consider this personification of faith "a little bit
> >bizarre." This personification seems more than natural to me. Wouldn't
> >surprise me if Luke picked up this technique from his teacher, Paul.

To which you responded:

>Nevertheless I DO consider "The
>Faith" to be rather bizarre as a personification in ancient Greek, however
>normal and even well-accepted it may be in an English...


Do not you sense from the NT writers that they were very much aware of these 
"unique" documents being assembled, known to us today as the New Testament? 
(Jude, for example, identified them as the faith once for all delivered; 
Peter referred to the writings of Paul, etc.)

Let me clarify what I mean:

You said that the personification of The Faith seems a bit bizarre in 
"ancient Greek." Are you referring to Homeric? Classical? Hellenistic? 
Attic? Koine? etc. Or, are you referring to the writings of the Apostles and 
their associates?

The reason I ask is because of the comment I had made. I did not think it 
"bizarre" that such a concept as personifying "faith" seemed at all odd in 
the context of the unique documents of the New Testament. Especially in 
light of your seeing "personification" as far back as the Old Testament, 
later with SOPHIA, and hO LOGOS etc.

To me, since you agreed (I think) that personifying various concepts was not 
at all unheard of, in what sense can you justify seeing the personification 
of "faith" as a little bit bizarre?

When Paul personified "sin" as working "within him," (Romans 7:20) would you 
likewise consider this in any sense bizarre? Or, is "faith" singled out for 
any particular reason.

Personally, I am not so sure I would have a problem with Paul personifying 
anything. For example, I do not find it bizarre that Paul personifies 
various body parts in his letter to the Corinthians? Are you aware of any 
ancient Greek personification of a foot? (12:15)

I really would appreciate a clarification, because I really liked your first 
answer to this topic. You seemed to me to be "backing away" from your first 
"interpretation," an interpretation I thought was right on!!

Thank you,

Mark Wilson

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