[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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