[B-Greek] DIKAIOUMENOI in Romans 3:24

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Wed Oct 29 00:37:26 EST 2003


On Oct 28, 2003, at 6:49 PM, David & Sharon Mills wrote:

> PANTES GAR hHMARTON . DIKAIOUMENOI DWREAN..
>
>
>
> The grammatical connection between PANTES and the participle 
> DIKAIOUMENOI
> seems obvious, but I have a little trouble understanding the logic of 
> this
> construction here.  It looks to me to be the perfect place for a KAI . 
> KAI .
> contruction: "For not only have all sinned ., but also all are 
> justified
> freely ..  Am I understanding Paul correctly, or am I missing 
> something?

Hi David:

KAI ... KAI normally forms a "both ... and" construction. It would 
actually be quite awkward to use KAI to conjoin a finite verb with a 
participle. In this case PANTES is the subject of hHMARTON and 
hUSTEROUNTAI, finite verbs conjoined by KAI. DIKAIOUMENOI is a 
circumstantial or adverbial modifier of either hHMARTON, hUSTEROUNTAI, 
or both. I personally opt for both. Since it describes action related 
to the subject of the verb(s) it modifies (PANTES), it is in 
grammatical agreement with the gender, number, and case of PANTES and 
the number of the verbs with which it is associated.

As for the precise sense of the participle in relation to the governing 
verbs, this is a more difficult question. Taking the overall context 
into consideration, the point seems to be that "all" have equally 
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and thus "all" are 
necessarily justified in the same manner, the only possible manner 
given the circumstances--DWREAN, etc. Both the Jews and the Gentiles 
Paul is addressing share a common problem that required a common 
solution. This seems to be part of a larger strategy on Paul's part to 
bring unity to Jews and Gentiles in the Roman church, a problem that 
comes to the fore later in the letter.
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




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