Grammatical question in Rom 4.1

Moon-Ryul Jung moon at saint.soongsil.ac.kr
Sat Feb 3 04:45:00 EST 2001


Dear Bgreekers,

I would like to discuss the following translation of Rom 4:1:

 What then shall we say? [Have we] found Abraham [to be] 
  our forefather according to the flesh?

This translation is based on the following parsing:
 7.7
Rom 4:1 TI OUN EROUMEN? EUREKENAI ABRAHAM TON PROPATORA HMWN
         KATA SARKA?

(1)
Hays suggested the above reading. He surveyed Paul's other uses of 
TI OUN EROUMEN, which occurs only in Romans (3.5, 6.1., 7.7,
 8:31, 9.14, 9.30). In every case except for 8:31, this expression
forms a complete sentence. This observation is the basis of the
above reading. But it makes the infinite clause following 
TI OUN EROUMEN to play as a sentence. Would it be possible?


(2) Here the point of the passage is whether Abraham is our forefather 
    ACCORDING TO THE FLESH OR NOT.  The fact that Abraham is our
    forefather is assumed. Here the prepositional phrase is understood 
    to be adverbial. This  is fine, because the article does not  
    precede the phrase. A rendering "our forefather according to 
    the flesh"  which takes KATA SARKA as adjectival should be
    considered when  the other way is not feasible. In this regard, 
    the above reading seems fine.  

(3) The typical interpretation may be represented by the following 
    rendering:
    What then shall we say Abraham to have found according to the flesh?

    It makes TI the object of EURHKENAI, and it makes the sentence
     quite complicated. It seems to be a disadvantage of the typical
    rendering? 

(4)  Wouldn't the typical rendering require the following?

  TI OUN EROUMEN ABRAHAM TON PROPATORA HMWN EUREKENAI 
         KATA SARKA?

Moon
Moon-Ryul Jung
Sogang Univ, Seoul, Korea
    



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