ALLHLWN

Mike Sangrey msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Wed Dec 18 09:02:11 EST 2002


On Tue, 2002-12-17 at 23:57, Iver Larsen wrote:
<snip>
> 
> Acts 19:38 EGKALEITWSAN ALLHLOIS
> 
> If Demetrius and his group have a complaint against someone, then "let them
> bring charges against one another." Again we have two subgroups, the
> accusers and the accused who together form a group of involved parties. The
> first subgroup is not bringing mutual charges against themselves, but it is
> possible that the accusers and the accused will mutually charge one another,
> although we would normally expect one party to bring charges and the other
> party to bring a defense.

We would normally expect one party to bring charges against another;
however, my understanding is their court system worked differently at
that time.  In their case (ummmm, pun intended), the accusser could be
found guilty just as easily as the accused.  In other words, their
judicial system was inherently more reciprocal.

> 
> My guess it that in the particular verse you are referring to, the question
> cannot be resolved by referring to ALLHLOIS alone. There are other crucial
> factors, for instance, is the command really directed to all believers or to
> a subgroup? Context is as always crucial.

Personally, I think the best way of seeing the mutuality of ALLHLOIS is
to view the group from the outside, sort of as a spectator.  For
example, Rev. 6:4 shows, quite obviously, that the action can not be
perfectly and absolutely reciprocal.  How could everyone be killing
everyone?  However, looking at the event from the outside, as a
spectator, the description conveys the idea of utter chaos--the
spectator can not tell who is killing whom.  There's no one individual
who is "standing his ground" and winning.

It's the same with the 1 Pet 5:5 passage.  When looking at the group as
a whole, who is the more humble.  Well, you can't tell.  At least that's
the ideal.  There's a mutual humility going on in the group.

-- 
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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