[B-Greek] Romans 1:17 & 18

Eric S. Weiss eweiss at gte.net
Fri May 23 12:27:33 EDT 2003


To confuse matters(!), I believe that Stanley Porter, whose specialty is 
the aspect of Greek verbs (though some of his ideas are considered 
idiosyncratic by some), in his IDIOMS book views Romans 1:18ff. as being 
aorist verbs with present (rather than past) meanings. I think Today's 
English Version (The Good News Bible), nearly alone among contemporary 
translations, adopts this view:

17 For the gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is 
through faith from beginning to end. As the scripture says, "The person 
who is put right with God through faith shall live." 18 God's anger is 
revealed from heaven against all the sin and evil of the people whose 
evil ways prevent the truth from being known.19 God punishes them, 
because what can be known about God is plain to them, for God himself 
made it plain. 20 Ever since God created the world, his invisible 
qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been 
clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. So 
those people have no excuse at all! 21 They know God, but they do not 
give him the honor that belongs to him, nor do they thank him. Instead, 
their thoughts have become complete nonsense, and their empty minds are 
filled with darkness. 22 They say they are wise, but they are fools; 23 
instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look 
like mortals or birds or animals or reptiles. 24 And so God has given 
those people over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and they 
do shameful things with each other. 25 They exchange the truth about God 
for a lie; they worship and serve what God has created instead of the 
Creator himself, who is to be praised forever! Amen. 26 Because they do 
this, God has given them over to shameful passions. Even the women 
pervert the natural use of their sex by unnatural acts. 27 In the same 
way the men give up natural sexual relations with women and burn with 
passion for each other. Men do shameful things with each other, and as a 
result they bring upon themselves the punishment they deserve for their 
wrongdoing. 28 Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true 
knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that 
they do the things that they should not do. 29 They are filled with all 
kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, 
murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip 30 and speak evil of 
one another; they are hateful to God, insolent, proud, and boastful; 
they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they 
have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no 
kindness or pity for others. 32 They know that God's law says that 
people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they 
continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do 
them.



>The verb APOKALUPTETAI in both Ro 1:17 & 18 has me wondering about the
>tense and the intrinsic meaning of the term. The very nature of
>revealing something may simply mean this is seen as of now.even though
>the present indicative tense usually means ongoing action. But the
>context here makes me think the emphasis is on the continuing revealing
>of righteousness and anger.not something that's completely done.but
>something that is continuing to unfold. Is this on target?
>


-- 
Eric S. Weiss
http://home1.gte.net/vzn05pnm/index.htm
S.D.G.






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