1 Cor. 2:7

Mike Sangrey msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Thu Apr 11 11:58:25 EDT 2002


On Wed, 2002-04-10 at 23:17, Mark Wilson wrote:
> 
> ALLA LALOUMEN SOFIAN QEOU EN MUSTHRIWi
> THN APOKEKRUMMENHN hHN PROWRISEN hO QEOS
> PRO TWN AIWNWN EIS DOXAN hHMWN  [TR text]
> 
> Some have EN MUSTHRIWi modifying LALOUMEN; others see
> it modifying APOKEKRUMMENHN.
> 
> Are both equally likely? Which is more likely?

I think LALOUMEN.

ISTM the issue boils down to how you're going to take MUSTHRION.  I take
it to refer to something which was hidden from the general population
but is revealed to a group of people.  See Louw & Nida.

If one takes MUSTHRION to refer to a mystery, that is, something which
is not known but is eventually uncovered through a process of
investigation and deduction, then it makes no sense--in this
context--for Paul to say "we speak God's wisdom in a way which hides it
from people so they have to do a lot of detective work to figure it
out."  If that's what MUSTHRION means, then it makes more sense for EN
MUSTHRIWi to modify the following participle.  Although, for me, that
gets real awkward.  I've just tried for a number of minutes to make that
work and I keep bumping up against things which don't quite fit the
syntax and/or the flow of thought.

However, taking it the way I understand MUSTHRION results in something
more like this:

    We speak God's wisdom in a manner which reveals this secret wisdom
    to a specific group of people.  The thing kept secret, which God saw
    before history began (was) to be for our glory, which...

Paul then goes on to say that the then leadership didn't know this
wisdom either, that the wisdom is phenomenal, that it's for those who
love him.  It is to these people that God has revealed it.  So, what
Paul goes on to say are simply restatements and clarifications of what
he has just said.

In other words, at least for me, it hangs together rather well.

FWIW:  I've noticed in other places Paul doing this type of thing.  He
places something on the table in the accusative case, it's the main
object he talks about, and then he proceeds through various clauses to
massage it and mold it, sooner or later bringing in the main subject and
the main action.  I think he does that here.

-- 
Mike Sangrey
msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Landisburg, Pa.
                        "The first one last wins."
            "A net of highly cohesive details reveals the truth."




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