[B-Greek] Rom. 1:13
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Mar 15 08:25:45 EST 2005
At 2:50 PM +0200 3/15/05, Antti V J Mustakallio wrote:
>Dear members of the list,
>
>In his essay "For I am not Ashamed of the Gospel (Rom. 1.16): The Gospel
>and the First Readers of Romans" (In Gospel in Paul. Studies on
>Corinthians, Galatians and Romans for Richard Longenecker, eds L. Ann
>Jervis and Peter Richardson. 254-287. JSNTSup 108. Sheffield: Sheffield
>Academy Press 1994) Steve Mason proposed a reading of Rom. 1:13 that has
>bothered my mind lately. The Greek text goes as follows:
>
>OU QELÔ DE HYMAS AGNOEIN, ADELFOI, hOTI POLLAKIS PROEQEMENÊN ELQEIN PROS
>HYMAS, KAI EKÔLYQÊN AXRI TOU DEURO, HINA TINA KARPON SXÔ KAI EN HYMIN
>KAQÔS KAI EN TOIS LOIPOIS EQNESIN
I appreciate your serious effort to transliterate the text, but it looks
like you've endeavored to transliterate a pasted text from a Greek-font
text. On my screen the long letters (Omega = W, Eta = H) appear as square
blocks. We also tend to use a lower-case "h" for the rough breathing.
>The translation in NRSV is a good example of how this verse has usually
>been understood:
>
>"I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to
>come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap
>some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles"
>
>That is, Paul compares "you" and "the rest of the Gentiles", and "the rest
>of the Gentiles" refers to those among whom Paul has already work in the
>Eastern Mediterranean.
>
>Mason's proposal (p. 270) is quite different. He is of the opinion that
>TOIS LOIPOIS EQNESIN should be translated "the remainder of the Gentiles"
>- not just "the rest" - because the basic meaning of LOIPOS is
>"remaining". According to his view, "the remainder of the Gentiles" does
>not mean the Gentiles in the east but those Gentiles among whom Paul will
>work in west, Spain. The idea would be as follows: "He will harvest some
>fruit both among the Judean-Christians of Rome, in passing, and then
>continue the mission for which he was called among the western Gentiles."
>Mason gives the following translation: "I do not want you to be ignorant,
>brothers, that I have often intended to come to you - and have been
>prevented from doing so until now - in order that I might have some fruit
>among you, just as also among the remainder of the Gentiles."
>
>I think that there are some details that support Mason's reading: there is
>only one verb, SXW, in the clause, and KAI ... KAI -structure. A big
>question to me is that can KAQWS really be so flexible.
>
>I would be happy to know what kind of opinions members of this list have
>on Mason's suggestion. Is it grammatically defensible?
For my part, I think Steve Mason's suggestion is perfectly reasonable. As I
see it this is not really a variant of the Greek text but a way of
understanding the Greek text. I don't really see a problem in the Greek,
which I think admits of more than one understanding of KAI EN TOIS LOIPOIS
EQNESIN. For my part I don't think that the KAI ... KAI usage here is at
all an instance of the conjunctional pair but rather two (redundant)
distinct uses of an adverbial KAI: "so as to have some success among you as
well, just as among all the other Gentiles too." But the phrasing from the
beginning of the hINA-clause seems to me to be loose rather than so tight
as to require SCW in its tense and number to be necessarily implicit with
KAI EN TOIS LOIPOIS EQNESIN. I think that it could apply to those Gentiles
not yet visited, but the SCW could have its implicit ESCON with KAI EN TOIS
LOIPOIS EQNESIN. In sum then, I think that Mason's interpretation is
plausible enough (certainly KAQWS is flexible enough), but I don't see that
it must be any MORE plausible than the interpretation holding that KAQWS
KAI EN TOIS LOIPOIS EQNESIN refers to Gentiles with whom Paul has already
had some successful interaction.
--
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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