[B-Greek] APWSATO PROEGNW functional antonyms in ROM. 11:2 ?
Elizabeth Kline
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net
Wed Dec 5 16:54:49 EST 2007
ROM. 11:1 LEGW OUN, MH APWSATO hO QEOS TON LAON AUTOU; MH GENOITO:
KAI GAR EGW ISRAHLITHS EIMI, EK SPERMATOS ABRAAM, FULHS BENIAMIN. 2
OUK APWSATO hO QEOS TON LAON AUTOU hON PROEGNW. H OUK OIDATE EN HLIAi
TI LEGEI hH GRAFH, hWS ENTUGCANEI TWi QEWi KATA TOU ISRAHL;
T.Shreiner Rom. BECNT p.580 "... PROEGNW clearly functions as the
antonym of APWSATO. The later verb means 'rejected' and thus the
former means 'selected.'"
Is Shreiner trying to say that his reading of PROEGNW, as a
restrictive term limiting TON LAON AUTOU to the righteous remnant,
makes the proposition APWSATO hO QEOS TON LAON AUTOU impossible? But
if the proposition is impossible why would Paul bother with it? Straw
man? Possibly. Also this raises problems with the referent of TON
LAON AUTOU, what is the referent? Does the referent change within the
immediate context?
It seems to me that APWSATO and PROEGNW are not functional antonyms
and the proposition APWSATO hO QEOS TON LAON AUTOU is not impossible.
It appears that Paul considers APWSATO hO QEOS TON LAON AUTOU a
viable reading of the history of Israel or he wouldn't be getting so
worked up to refute it.
The referent of TON LAON AUTOU in 11:1 appears to be the nation not
the righteous remnant and that would make a switch reference for TON
LAON AUTOU hON PROEGNW in 11:2 somewhat confusing (see Fitzmyer,
Cranfield, Sanday & Headlam, Meyer, Alford).
Elizabeth Kline
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