[B-Greek] Acts 26,8

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Apr 13 06:37:52 EDT 2004


At 8:23 PM -0700 4/12/04, Eddie Mishoe wrote:
>TI APISTON KRINETAI PARí hUMIN EI hO QEOS NEKROUS
>EGEIREI;
>
>In light of Paul's prior and repeated emphases on the
>ELPIS of the (coming/prophesied) resurrection, the
>present tense EGEIREI seems clumsy. Is a present tense
>verb here unexpected?

I really don't see why this should be a problem; seems to me that Paul's
fundamental doctrine is that God raises the dead and that Jesus EGHGERTAI
EK NEKRWN APARCH TWN KEKOIMHMENWN (1 Cor 15:20); cf. Jn 5:21 hWSPER GAR hO
PATHR EGEIREI TOUS NEKROUS KAI ZWOPOIEI hOUTWS KAI hO hUIOS hOUS QELEI
ZWOPOIEI. In general the doctrine of 1 Cor 15 is that hOI NEKROI
EGEIRONTAI, and in Romans 4 Paul seems almost to define God's distinctive
power as creating what is not and making alive what is dead: Rom 4:17 ...
KATENANTI hOU EPISTEUSEN QEOU TOU ZWiOPOIOUNTOS TOUS NEKROUS KAI KALOUNTAS
TA MH ONTA hWS ONTA--that's the God that Abraham believed in! So, while it
is true that all the other uses of EGEIRW in Acts are in the aorist, it is
not as if the present tense of EGEIRW is uncommon in the GNT with respect
to God's raising the dead.
-- 

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/



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