[B-Greek] Romans 4:1

Stephen Payne spayneop at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 26 13:46:02 EDT 2006


Harold,

After checking the surrounding verses, I realized I misidentified 
hEURHKENAI: its a perfect infinitive, not a present, and it can make sense 
for ABRAAM to be its subject and "our forefather according to flesh" remains 
in apposition to it.  With this in mind, there is hardly any distinction 
between (1) and (2) below.  Earlier I didn't have my GNT with me, and I 
shouldn't have replied just from a quick glance at the text.

Regards,
Stephen Payne


>From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard at ont.com>
>To: B-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Romans 4:1
>Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 10:53:39 -0500
>
>Dear Stephen,
>
> >Yes, since ABRAAM is indeclinable it "could" serve as subject for
> >hEURHKENAI, but then the sentence would make little or no sense.  (1) 
>"What
> >then shall we say (that) Abraham finds our forefather according to 
>flesh?"
> >or (2) "What then shall we say (that) Abraham, our forefather, finds
> >according to flesh?" We can certainly rule out (2) since hEURHKENAI is
> >transitive, but there is nothing to provide an object.  And (1) is just
> >nonsensical, since Abraham obviously is the forefather under issue.
> >Therefore, I think one can rule out ABRAAM as subject for hEURHKENAI.
> >
> >
> >
>HH: Maybe I just don't understand you, but option 2 above is that taken
>by nearly every major translation of the Bible and makes perfect sense.
>The object of the transitive verb is "what," since this is a question.
>The object is TI.
>
>TI OUN EROUMEN hEURHKENAI ABRAAM TON PROPATORA hHMWN KATA SARKA
>
>
>However, the textual evidence favors to a consider extent that
>"according to the flesh" goes with "forefather":
>
>"What then shall we say (that) Abraham, our forefather according to the 
>flesh, has found?
>
>
>Yours,
>Harold Holmyard
>---
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