[B-Greek] Re: Romans 1:17 EK PISTEWS EIS PISTIN

Harold R. Holmyard III hholmyard at ont.com
Thu Apr 29 12:57:59 EDT 2004


Dear Paul,

Thanks for taking the trouble to upload that information from BDAG. 
The lexicon is giving more importance to "faithfulness" notion, it 
seems.

>(4) The verb with which the expression occurs is always non-telic.

HH: I do not really know what this means. Can you explain it? At any 
rate, I assume "revealed" in Rom 1:17 can be viewed as non-telic.

>Examples include EK TOPOU EIS TOPON ('from Place  to place'), EX 
>ALOGOU EIS ALOGON ('from absurdity to >absurdity'), and from 
>biblical literature, EK DUNAMEWS EIS DUNAMIN (Ps 83:8 LXX),
>EK KAKWN EIS KAKA (Jer 9:3 LXX), and EK QANATOU EIS QANATON, EK ZWHS 
>EIS ZWHN (2 Cor 2:16).

>Arguing from Cognitive Grammar (he says the principles of this field 
>relating to prepositions are generally agreed among practitioners; I 
>won't try to
>summarize his reasoning here), he argues that
>''the idiom simply underscores immutability, unchangeableness'.
>Hence, it seems, Rom 1:17 may be rendered as follows:

HH: I do not think that immutability is the idea at all in Ps 83:8 
LXX. It seems just the opposite. People go from one degree of 
strength to another. The same is true in Jer 9:3 LXX. People go from 
one evil to another. And that is how A. T. Robertson takes it in 2 
Cor 2:16: "From one evil condition to another." One interpretation 
I've heard for the usage (EK -- EIS --) is that it implies 
"completely faith" (Rom 1:17) or "completely death" (2 Cor 2:16). 
Jamieson, Faucett, & Brown wrote about 2 Cor 2:16:

16. savour of death unto death . . . of life unto life--an odor 
arising out of death (a mere announcement of a dead Christ, and a 
virtually lifeless Gospel, in which light unbelievers regard the 
Gospel message), ending (as the just and natural consequence) in 
death (to the unbeliever); (but to the believer) an odor arising out 
of life (that is, the announcement of a risen and living Saviour), 
ending in life (to the believer) (Matthew 21:44, Luke 2:34, John 
9:39).

The HCSB recently translated the phrase in 2 Cor 2:16 as "a scent of 
death leading to death."

>'In the gospel, right relationship with God is being revealed: It is 
>a path which begins in faith(fulness)
>and ends in faith(faithfulness); as it is written, The righteous 
>shall live by faith(fulness).'
>
>[By faith(fulness) I mean, of course, to express the
>ambiguity that Lawrence has rightly suggestsed may be
>intended in Paul's Greek.]
>
>If this is right, then Rom 1:17 states the theme of the whole letter.

HH: A couple of issues I see here is that one has to add the idea "it 
is a path which begins." The prepositional phrases "from faith to 
faith" do not modify "right relationship" or the idea of a "path" 
that represents that relationship but rather the verb: "For by it the 
righteousness of God is revealed  ----." And a right relationship 
with God cannot begin, it seems, with faithfulness. Faithfulness is 
something manifested after a relationship already exists.

				Yours,
				Harold Holmyard




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