Rm. 9:32a

Dave Washburn dwashbur at nyx.net
Fri Mar 30 13:40:59 EST 2001


Moon,
> Dear Mark,
> 
> This is the passage I had some time to think about. 
> I wanted to find some way to interpret this passage
> without introducing the idea that the Jews seeked for
> so called "work-righteousness" or salvation based on
> works. 

Why?  That's exactly what the passage says.  As I see it, the 
hWS simply indicates that such an approach could never work.  
The RSV rendering you cite brings this out nicely:

> An example of this interpretation is:
> 
> RSV  Romans 9:32 Why? They didn't rely on faith to gain God's approval,
> but they relied on their own efforts. They stumbled over the rock that
> trips people.
> 
> I have no problem interpreting hWS to mean "as if".
> I would translate Rom 9:31, 32 as follows:
> 
> Israel seeking the law of righteousness (the law that promises 
> righteousness) did not attain to that law.
> Why? Because [they seeked it] not by faith [in Christ] 
> but as if by works (deeds) [of the law].

Rather than "as if" I would render it "but, as if it were possible, by 
works."  The ALL' denotes a contrast between "by faith" and "by 
works," so I don't really see how it would be possible to render the 
latter without suggesting that these people were trying to achieve a 
works-based righteousness.


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No study of probabilities inside a given frame can ever
tell us how probable it is that the frame itself can be
violated."  C. S. Lewis



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