[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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