[B-Greek] Ro. 3:26

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Dec 5 19:19:18 EST 2003


At 5:50 PM -0300 12/5/03, John Colby wrote:
>The end of Romans 3:26 reads:
>
>EIS TO EINAI AUTON DIKAION KAI DIKAIOUNTA TON EK PISTEWS IHSOU
>
>I take the first part as being an articular infinitive with a preposition
>(in order that He (might) be just...). How is the participle DIKAIOUNTA
>being used? Is it being used as an "object" of EINAI like DIKAION is? Is
>it substantive even with out an article? Is the phrase TON EK PISTEWS
>IHSOU the "direct object" of DIKAIOUNTA?

I would understand the construction as equivalent to hWSTE AUTOS DIKAIOS
ESTIN KAI DIKAIWN TON EK PISTEWS IHSOU, i.e. the implicit subject is hO
QEOS (carried forward from what proceeded), AUTON is not the subject
pronoun but intensive pronoun with DIKAION; then DIKAIOUNTA is a second
predicate dependent upon EINAI:  " ... so that he is himself righteous and
makes righteous the one person who is righteous on the basis of the faith
in/of Jesus (TON EK PISTEWS IHSOU [DIKAION]). That is to say: two things
are being affirmed of God here: (a) he himself is righteous, and (b) he
causes to be righteous the one (whose righteousness) depends upon faith
in/of Jesus.

>Should the phrase TON EK PISTEWS IHSOU be rendered, "the one having faith
>in [or of] Jesus", or is there another way of translating it? Any help
>with this confusing construction is appreciated!

As indicated above, I think that TON heads a nominal phrase in which there
must be an implicit accusative adjective DIKAION; then EK PISTEWS IHSOU
depends upon that implicit DIKAION.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list