[B-Greek] TA PAQHMATA... TA... ENHRGEITO EN TOIV MELESIN HMWN

Mike Sangrey msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Fri Aug 27 20:31:15 EDT 2004


On Fri, 2004-08-27 at 19:20, Dean Kalmantis wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I am having some trouble with the following text from Ro 7:5:
> 
> TA PAQHMATA TWN AMARTIWN TA DIA TOU NOMOU ENHRGEITO EN TOIV MELESIN 
> HMWN EIS TO KARPOFORHSAI TW QANATW
> 
> English translations usually render this as: THE PASSIONS OF SIN WERE 
> WORKING IN OUR MEMBERS THROUGH THE LAW FOR THE BEARING OF FRUIT UNTO 
> DEATH.
> 
> If sinful passions caused the KARPOFORIA, shouldn’t “working” 
> (ENHRGEITO) be active? Wouldn’t it be better to have said TA PAQHMATA 
> TWN AMARTIWN TA DIA TOU NOMOU ENHRGOUN EN TOIV MELESIN HMWN EIS TO 
> KARPOFORHSAI TW QANATW?
> 
> Or perhaps is there another way to understand this verse?

I think this is a qood question.  It illustrates something Carl has
pointed out regarding the middle.

Carl has mentioned that the middle sometimes needs to be thought of
along the lines of how we (admittedly in a very colloquial way) say
things like:  "Eat yourselves some food."  The thought is to intensify
the involvment of the subject in the action.  "Come on in and eat to
your fill", "Really chow down."  That sort of thing.

I would think of ENHROGOUN in the sense of "work their way up."  The
passions "work their way up" in our physical body.  It's kind of a
picture of the build up of anger or other intense passions.  It's a
feedback loop, if you know what I mean.

-- 
Mike Sangrey
msangrey at BlueFeltHat.org
Landisburg, Pa.
                        "The first one last wins."
            "A net of highly cohesive details reveals the truth."




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