[B-Greek] Warning re: APOCALYPTIC INTERPRETIVE CONTEXT re: APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at ioa.com
Wed Nov 9 14:22:47 EST 2005


This post is out of order, both with respect to the fact that it  
violates BG Guidelines regarding parameters of list-discussion and  
with respect to its ignoring my request that the topic be dropped.

On Nov 9, 2005, at 10:55 AM, Richard W. Wilson wrote:

>
> I know many of us are skating the fringes of the solid ice of B- 
> Greek protocols, but big picture issues of textual interpretation  
> can perhaps avoid falling through. (Hence the change in subject)
>
> So, Elizabeth Kline reasserts the importance of interpretive  
> context. While "the central idea of apocalyptic" may reasonably be  
> characterized as something like "the unveiling of [the] divine plan  
> which was established APO KATABOLHS KOSMOU," this doesn't really  
> eliminate the possibility that aspects of "The Book," or Books, are  
> still being written, or are written when they are revealed. To  
> whit, individual and particular detailed aspects of those books are  
> never said to be written en toto at creation in the biblical texts  
> I have seen. This is especially the case with our texts here (Rev  
> 13:8 and 17:8) that merely say names have NOT been written from the  
> foundations of the world and nothing in particular about the names  
> that have been written.
>
> OK, here is a B-Greek question: If there is a text that makes an  
> absolutist assertion about God's pre-writing of history please  
> point us to that text and we'll unpack it.
>
> I am no stranger to the study of "second temple" apocalyptic  
> litererature and its influence on the NT. We post-biblical thinkers  
> are rather prone to over-rationalize hebraic/jewish biblical  
> thought into a (sometimes theo-)logical box that doesn't do justice  
> to the paradoxical nuances of the thought world in which they  
> lived. So, I am inclined to think that it is a bit presumptuous to  
> camp out on one end of the spectrum regarding what is written APO  
> KATABOLHS KOSMOU.
>
> I'm open to being persauded otherwise, but I haven't yet seen any  
> biblical text that asserts an absolute foreknowing or  
> foredetermining of everything by God prior to or at creation. That  
> God is seen as working everything out according to his purposes,  
> that all that happens is allowed to happen, that he will even  
> determine the outcome of all future events may be clear, but when  
> all things are known and determined is another matter.
>
> Yours in Christ,
> Richard Wilson
>
> -- Richard W. Wilson, BA, MCS, MA; Our Net Services, St. Louis, MO
>


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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