[B-Greek] The present tense in Hebrews 6:4-6

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Jan 24 11:12:40 EST 2007


OK, let's start all over again.

Heb 6:4 ADUNATON GAR TOUS hAPAX FWTISQENTAS, GEUSAMENOUS TE THS  
DWREAS THS EPOURANIOU KAI METOCOUS GENHQENTAS PNEUMATOS hAGIOU 5 KAI  
KALON GEUSAMENOUS QEOU hRHMA DUNAMEIS TE MELLONTOS AIWNOS 6 KAI  
PARAPESONTAS, PALIN ANAKAINIZEIN EIS  METANOIAN, ANASTAUROUNTAS  
hEAUTOIS TON hUION TOU QEOU KAI PARADEIGMATIZONTAS.

Here's how I construe the whole:

ADUNATON GAR ... ANAKAINIZEIN EIS METANOIAN (Eng. "It's impossible,  
after all, to bring back again to repentance ... ") This is the main  
proposition.

TOUS ... FWTISQENTAS, GEUSAMENOUS ... METOCOUS GENHQENTAS ... KAI ...  
GEUSAMENOUS ... KAI PARAPESONTAS (Eng. " ... those who have been  
enlightened, who have tasted, who have come to share in ... and who  
have tasted ... and have fallen away ...) All these substantival  
participles are the object of ANAKAINIZEIN EIS METANOIAN.

ANASTAUROUNTAS ...  KAI PARADEIGMATIZONTAS (Eng. "since/because/ 
inasmuch as they crucify again ... and subject to mockery ... " These  
are circumstantial participles characterizing the behavior of (and in  
grammatical concord with) the object of ANAKAINIZEIN,  TOUS ...  
PARAPESONTAS. In this instance the circumstantial participles  
indicate what those who have fallen aside are doing now, and  
therefore explains WHY it's impossible to bring them back again to  
repentance.

So -- with regard to the two sets of participles: (1) TOUS  
FWTISQENTAS  ...GEUSAMENOUS ... METOCOUS GENHQENTAS ... KAI ...  
GEUSAMENOUS ... KAI PARAPESONTAS: these are all aorist participles  
that are made substantives by the introductory article TOUS; they are  
aorist because they indicate what these persons have achieved/ 
accomplished -- what they are guilty of having done; (2)  
ANASTAUROUNTAS ... KAI PARADEIGMATIZONTAS are both present  
participles indicating what those persons are doing and thereby  
indicating why it's impossible to bring them back again to  
repentance. You might conceivably relate the two sets of participles  
thus: Those who (a) HAVE DONE all those acts are (b) NOW making a  
mockery of the Son of God.

I don't know if that helps or not, but I hope at least that it may  
help you to pinpoint where your problem actually is.

On Jan 24, 2007, at 9:27 AM, Carl Unger wrote:

> No more answers?
> No more on the 2 present participles?
> No more on the overall translation?
>
> Let me say that I am not effected personally by this passage meaning
> I'm not worried that I have fallen away and lost my salvation etc, I
> don't want anyone to soften down their arguments because they think I
> might get hurt by an argument which might suggest the people in view
> will not be saved.
>
> Thank you.
>
> On 1/22/07, Carl Unger <carlunger at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thank you for your responses.
>> From reading them, the conclusion here seems to be that it can  
>> either be
>> temporal or
>> causal depending on the context.
>> There was an argument I found that it is actually causal which I  
>> will quote:
>> **
>> *"The two present participles in v. 6 are causal, modifying the  
>> predicate
>> and answering the question
>>  why is it "impossible." See the discussion in Attridge, Hebrews, p"*
>>
>> Once again, I'm not a big shot at this so I'm not sure if the  
>> argument holds
>> any water,
>> so I'd like to know comments on that one.
>>
>> If causal, does that 100% rule out *anastaurountas* and  
>> *paradeigmatidzontas
>> *being a present ongoing action?
>>
>> I pretty much have little clue or understanding of how this all  
>> works, so
>> any further
>> understanding would be appreciated.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>>
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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/





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