[B-Greek] DIKAIOUMENOI in Romans 3:24
David & Sharon Mills
dmills at inebraska.com
Wed Oct 29 09:04:00 EST 2003
Steven, I appreciate your answer, and I think I understand the passage as
you do. But, I am troubled because what I read is not how I would expect
that understanding to be expressed. Let me clarify my question. Why did
Paul use the participle DIKAIOUMENOI, instead of a finite verb? My English
mind expects two _finite verbs_ : "There is no difference. For all people
(whether Jew or Gentile) have sinned ..., and all people (whether Jew or
Gentile) are justified freely ...." If I try to force my English patterns
into Greek, I might expect the two finite verbs in a KAI ... KAI ...
construction ("both / and," or "not only / but also"), or even the first as
a participle ("For all having sinned ... are justified freely ...") since
Paul has already established the first point and is now turning to the
second. So, when I see DIKAIOUMENOI, I am surprised and wonder what point I
am missing.
David R. Mills
Bellevue (NE) Church of Christ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Lo Vullo" <slovullo at mac.com>
To: "David & Sharon Mills" <dmills at inebraska.com>
Cc: "Biblical Greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 11:37 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] DIKAIOUMENOI in Romans 3:24
> 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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