participles and genitives in Rom 2:15b
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Jun 17 06:44:58 EDT 2002
At 11:03 PM -0400 6/16/02, richard smith wrote:
>Rom 2:15b SUMMARTUROUSHS AUTWN THS SUNEIDHSEWS KAI METAXU ALLHLWN TWN
>LOGISMWN KATHGOROUNTWN H KAI APOLOGOUMENWN
>
>I am having trouble relating the parts of this sentence to each other. I
>am taking the verse to be a genitive absolute construction, with THS
>SUNEIDHSEWS functioning as the subject of the absolute clause.
Yes, but THS SUNEIDHSEWS is subject only of the first of TWO genitive
absolutes:
(1) SUMMARTUROUSHS AUTWN THS SUNEIDHSEWS "as their conscience bears common
witness"
(2) METAXU ALLHLWN TWN LOGISMWN KATHGOROUNTWN H KAI APOLOGOUMENWN "as their
reasonings in interaction with each other function as accusers or even as
defenders"
>"With their conscience adding testimony"
>
>My attempts at reading this, assuming I am close with the above rendering,
>seem to stall at the phrase METAXU ALLHLWN. Gingrich indicates that it
>means ìamong one another.î Nevertheless, the NIV and NRSV do not seem to
>render the sense of the preposition in their respective translations.
>Might the preposition mean among different persons, among different
>thoughts?
>
>Several semantic questions come to mind. One is how to understand AUTWN
>THS SUNEIDHSEWS? Is this one corporate conscience of many, or should the
>singular genitive be understood as plural individual consciences? Perhaps
>the singular noun with a plural possessive pronoun means that each has an
>individual conscience?
>
>Is this a personal interplay between each individual conscienceís varying
>accusation and defense of a specific thought, of a specific action, or of
>different thoughts, of different actions ñ some defended and some accused?
>Or is this an exchange among various individuals to arrive at a corporate
>conscience?
I think that what is being described here by Paul is an individual's mental
accounting for his/her own behavior in terms of a Stoic understanding of
the conscience: one knows what one did and one's thoughts either accuse him
of wrongdoing in that deed or defend him as having done right in that deed.
>Are the thoughts actually the justification used by God in the judging of
>the rightness of an act? In other words, is the sincerity of motive,
>ANOMWS, the primary defense before THS DIKAIOKRISIAS TOU QEOU?
I think the point here is that when the Gentile stands before God at the
final tribunal, EVEN THOUGH he doesn't know of the Mosaic Law, nevertheless
s/he has his/her own inner sense of right-and-wrong and is as cognizant of
his/her legal/moral status (as unrighteous or righteous) as is the Jew on
the basis of the Mosaic Law. The Jew has had the moral law revealed to him,
but the Gentile intuits it rationally and so is not at any disadvantage
vis-a-vis the Jew at the final tribunal.
>And, please understand, I am not asking for a theological discussion, only
>for help with the sense of the relation and significance of the components
>of the verse. What is Paul saying here? And, more, how are these
>components being used to say it?
>
>Perhaps, if someone can help with an over literal translation, I will
>better understand the relation between the components of the verse, and
>will then be better able to make sense of its significance.
Of the currently available English versions I confess a general
predilection for the NET. I don't in every instance agree with its
rendering or reasoning, but unlike almost every other, it offers an
explanation of how its translator(s) have understood the original-language
construction. Here's what it offers (version and translator's notes) for
our text:
NET: 2:15 ... as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting
thoughts accuse or else defend n31 them, n32
31tn Or "excuse."
32tn Grk "their conscience bearing witness and between the thoughts
accusing or also defending one another."
Another very helpful web resource in many instances is A.T. Robertson's
_Word Pictures_
(http://www.biblestudytools.net/Commentaries/RobertsonsWordPictures/):
"Their conscience bearing witness therewith (SUMMARTUROUSHS AUTWN THS
SUNEIDHSEWS). On conscience (SUNEIDHSIS) see on 1 Corinthians 8:7;
1 Corinthians 10:25; 2 Corinthians 1:12. Genitive absolute here with
present active participle SUMMARTUROUSHS as in Romans 9:1. The word
SUNEIDHSIS means co-knowledge by the side of the original consciousness of
the act. This second knowledge is personified as confronting the first
(Sanday and Headlam). The Stoics used the word a great deal and Paul has it
twenty times. It is not in the O.T., but first in this sense in Wisdom
17:10. All men have this faculty of passing judgment on their actions. It
can be over-scrupulous (1 Corinthians 10:25) or "seared" by abuse
(1 Timothy 4:12). It acts according to the light it has. Their thoughts one
with another accusing or also excusing them (METAXU ALLHLWN TWN LOGISMWN
KATHGOROUNTWN H KAI APOLOGOUMENWN). Genitive absolute again showing the
alternative action of the conscience, now accusing, now excusing. Paul does
not say that a heathen's conscience always commends everything that he
thinks, says, or does. In order for one to be set right with God by his own
life he must always act in accord with his conscience and never have its
disapproval. That, of course, is impossible ..."
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
Most months:: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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