present active participle in Hebr. 6:6

Kimmo Huovila kimmo.huovila at helsinki.fi
Tue May 8 12:22:46 EDT 2001


dixonps at juno.com wrote:
<snip>

> Let's look at the logic of the text.
> Let Z = those who have once been enlightened, tasted of the heavenly
> gift, been made a partaker of the Holy Spirit, tasted of the good word of
> God and the powers of the age to come, and fallen away (4-6a);
> Let Y = the same are renewed to repentance;
> Let X = the Son of God is crucified again and put Him to open shame.
> 
> The argument can then be put together as:
> 
> If Z, then not Y (6:4-6a).  This is necessarily a true statement (on the
> assumption of Z), because Y cannot be true.  Why not?
> 
> Because, if Y is true, then X is necessarily true, that is, if Y then X
> (6:6b-c).

Paul,

I can see that the rest of your argument follows from this premise. It
is just at this point that I see things differently. If we assume that
there was the thought around that if one is renewed, then the Son is
crucified again, I could see the author using the participle (of manner)
to contradict the whole scenario. But I doubt the "if Y then X" is ever
expressed by having X as the participle and Y as the regent of the
participle. It is normally the other way around (the 'protasis' is the
participle).

I have seen your line of exegesis before, and wondered how they take
this participle. Now, even though I cannot (at least now) agree that it
is grammatically possible, I sincerely appreciate that you took time to
explain it to me. Thanks. And I still appreciate any fresh input.

Kimmo Huovila



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