Rom 4:16 hINA KATA CARIN

Moon-Ryul Jung moon at sogang.ac.kr
Tue Jun 11 20:25:15 EDT 2002


> DIA TOUTO EK PISTEWS, hINA KATA CARIN, EIS TO EINAI BEBAIAN THN EPAGGELIAN
> 
> 

I understood TOUTO refers back to verse 4:14 (with verse 15 being a
paranthetical remark), which states:

 IF the Law-people [hOI EK NOMOU] are heirs, the faith becomes void and
the promise  becomes nullified.

Because of this possibility that the faith might be void and the promise
might be nullified, the inheritance is EK PISTEWS [in order toavoid this
possibility].

I would translate v16:

Because of this the inheritance is from faith so that it is
according to grace, in order for the promise to be firmly established. 

I think v. 14 and v. 16 are quite parallel. V. 14 has the form:
IF P, then Q. V. 16 has the form: Because of this not P, so not Q.
 

v14: EI hOI EK NOMOS KLHRONOMOI, KEKENWTAI hH PISTIS 
                                  KAI KATHRGHTAI hH EPANGGELIA.
v16:        EK PISTEWS,          EIS TO EINAI BEBAIAN THN EPANGGELIAN.

v16 negates the conclusion of v14, by negating the premise of v14,
which is THE LAW PEOPLE ARE HEIRS (= THE INHERITANCE IS FROM LAW).

Some people takes "THE PROMISE" as the implied subject. But the parallism
between v14 and v16 strongly implies that the implied subject is
"THE INHERITANCE". 

Moon Jung
Sogang Univ, 
Seoul, Korea     
   







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