2 Peter 1:4

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Nov 24 06:38:26 EST 2002


At 10:30 PM +1100 11/24/02, Jonathan Burke wrote:
>Hi Carl,
>
>Thanks for your response:
>
>>
>First let's correct the transcription, which is not legible in its
>transcription above:
>>
>
>Hmmm, sorry about that.  I didn't realise it was so unreadable.
>
>>
>I'd English GENHSQE as "come to be" and I'd understand it in the sense of
>finally achieving the fullness of participation toward which the initial
>steps of faith-commitment and spiritual growth have set one's course. In one
>of the not uncommon eschatological formulations (such as also refers to the
>assertions that the believer "has died and been raised with Christ"), this
>is a matter of "already and not yet." The process has begun but isn't
>expected to be completed until "the day of Christ." So it's not a matter of
>EITHER they now have OR they will have in the future, but rather they BOTH
>have now (in part) AND will have (fully) in the future.
>>
>
>Ok, so to put it simply...  they have the Divine nature, and they don't have
>the Divine nature?

Or, if you are willing to honor the law of contradiction, they have it IN
PART and they don't have it FULLY. Moreover, the phrase QEIA FUSIS is a
strange one to describe what the believer "has." The NET has a nice note on
this:

"Although Peter has borrowed the expression partakers of the divine nature
from paganism, his meaning is clearly Christian. He does not mean
apotheosis (man becoming a god) in the pagan sense, but rather that
believers have an organic connection with God. Because of such a
connection, God can truly be called our Father. Conceptually, this bears
the same meaning as Paul's 'in Christ' formula. Peter's statement, though
startling at first, is hardly different from Paul's prayer for the
Ephesians that they 'may be filled up to all the fullness of God'"
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 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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