[B-Greek] Romans 2:4 adjective XRHSTON

craig newsgroupstuff at people.net.au
Fri Dec 30 04:19:40 EST 2005


> Usually, though not always, such a substantival adjective 
> will have the
> article with it to point out that its use is indeed substantival. Some
> words, such as KURIOS ("lord"), ERHMOS ("desert"), DIABOLOS
> ("slanderous," or, as a noun, "the devil"), and hAGIOS 
> ("holy," or, as a
> noun, "saint"), often function as substantives without the 
> article since
> they are either often or usually independent of nouns in the NT. Other
> adjectives, however, usually require the article to make 
> clear that they
> are being used substantivally.
> Furthermore, when the adjective is substantival, its gender 
> is generally
> fixed by sense rather than by grammatical concord. That is to 
> say, if it
> refers to a male, it will usually be masculine; if it refers 
> to a female,
> it will usually be feminine; if it refers to an entity or concept, it
> will be neuter.

> george
> gfsomsel

I guess the thing that intrigued me (probably because I am not well enough
acquainted with Greek adjectives), is that often when adjectives are used
substantivally, they refer to a person or thing, so that you could supply a
word such as 'one', 'man', 'thing', 'woman' after the adjective. (Although
perhaps this is just more the case with the adjectives that don't need the
article as much..?) Whereas in the case of Rom 2:4 it seems to more be
talking of an attribute, characteristic or activity of God. Is it more
adjectival in sense to say the TO XRHSTON TOU QEOU than to say THS
XRHSTOTHTOS TOU QEOU? Is there any nuanced difference in sense between TO
XRHSTON TOU QEOU and THS XRHSTOTHTOS AUTOU? Or is Paul just using the
adjective to not be too bland in his writing style?

Thinking about it some more, should it better be translated "the good [act]
of God"? Perhaps the noun refers to the quality in God, whereas the
adjective is referring to what God has actually done..?

--
Craig Johnson
Brisbane, Australia 




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