[B-Greek] Rom 8:28 and RSV?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Mon Sep 18 13:23:50 EDT 2006
On Sep 18, 2006, at 11:56 AM, Craig J wrote:
> I was reading an article recently where someone made a theological
> argument
> from Rom 8:28, based on the RSV translation...
>
> Rom 8:28
> OIDAMEN DE hOTI TOIS AGAPWSIN TON QEON PANTA SUNERGEI EIS AGAQON
> TOIS KATA
> PROQESIN KLHTOIS OUSIN
>
> RSV: "We know that in everything God works for good with those who
> love him,
> who are called according to his purpose"
>
> This is different from how I would have translated it, as also with
> most
> other translations I looked at (eg ESV, KJV, NET). Although I did
> notice my
> BAGD has the RSV noted as an alternative, although the NET Bible notes
> doesn't mention this option.
>
> Particularly the RSV takes TOIS AGAPWSIN as the ones with whom God
> SUNERGEI,
> and has QEOS as the (perhaps implicit) subject. I would have put
> PANTA as
> the subject of SUNERGEI. Is the RSV translation an equally valid
> way to read
> the grammar of Rom 8:28? What are the pros and cons?
If you really want to get into the give-and-take of opinions on this
subject, I suggest you do
an archive search using SUNERGEI. This passage has been discussed
many times and
I think it has hashed out about as thoroughly as it can be.
I would hold with what I think is a standard view of this passage,
that PANTA is the n. pl.
subject of SUNERGEI. Clearly an alternative view that the subject of
SUNERGEI must
be hO QEOS is sufficiently old that it even appears in some
manuscripts; you might look
at Metzger's note on this text in his "Textual Commentary." If hO
QEOS is not deemed
part of the original text, then understanding PANTA SUNERGEI as the
subject and
predicate seems a natural reading of the Greek text -- but it cannot
be said that reading
the text with PANTA as object and with an implicit hO QEOS as subject
is impossible.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list