Ro. 8:26

Maurice A. O'Sullivan mauros at iol.ie
Thu Jul 18 11:14:11 EDT 2002


The combination of STENAGMOI and ALALHTOI occurs in Ro. 8:26.

The adjective is a hapax in the NT and not at all in the LXX ( and the noun 
appears elsewhere in the NT only in Ac. 7: 34. )
I am aware that, starting with Origen, and right into our own times, the 
meaning of ALALHTOS has been disputed, with a sharp divide along 
"glossalalia"/charismatic lines. I have no desire to revisit that question 
( nor do the B-GREEK guide-lines allow me to ).

However, I see that BDAG has this citation:

 >>   Ro 8:26. JSchniewind, Nachgelassene Reden u. Aufsätze, ed. EKähler 
’52, 86; EKäsemann, Der gottesdienstliche Schrei nach der Freiheit: 
Apophoreta, EHaenchen Festschr. Beih. ZNW 30 ’64, 149–50 (both for the 
meaning ‘inexpressible’). <<<

As a non-German speaker, I would welcome any posting giving the nub of the 
arguments in these citations.

I know that Cranfield says about Kasemann " he has offered little in the 
way of postive argument in support ".

Incidentally, BDAG seems to lean on later NT versions as the entry for 
ALALHTOS begins:
 >> Philod. in Anth. Pal. 5, 4; Cyranides p. 19, 19) unexpressed, wordless 
STENAGMOI   A. sighs too deep for words (so the Syr. and Armen. tr.; the 
Vulgate renders it ‘inenarrabilis’, inexpressible) <<

and Zerwick & Grosvenor note of ALALHTOS:
 >> un-utterable or wordless ( Greg. Nyssa 4th. cent. )






Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros at iol.ie






More information about the B-Greek mailing list