[B-Greek] Causal hINA in Romans 5:20 and 6:1 - Caragounis

Iver Larsen iver_larsen at sil.org
Sat May 5 04:43:47 EDT 2007


>From Iver to Eric:

Since I don't have a copy of his book, I cannot comment on his arguments, but it seems to me that
Caragounis may be objecting to the traditional interpretation of hINA in these verses as a marker of
purpose. If so, I would agree, since the contexts in my view prohibit the sense of purpose. It
cannot be the case that God gave the law in order to increase sinning.

On the other hand, I can see no justification to ascribe a causal sense to hINA. I am not aware of
any contexts where hINA could mean "because". Nor does L&N or BAGD suggest such a
possibility. The hINAs in Rev 22:14, 16:15, Mark 4:12 indicate result rather than cause. 1 Pet 4:6
could be either purpose or result, but not cause.

hINA must indicate a result relationship in Rom 5:20 and 6:1 as in so many other places. It has been
stated several times on this list that whereas hINA in Classical Greek was predominantly, but not
exclusively, used to indicate purpose, this has changed in Hellenistic Greek. In the NT, hINA is
used either for purpose or result, and only the context will (sometimes) tell you which is intended.
(hINA has other usages, too.) Many English translations of the NT are misleading because they assume
the Classical usage rather than the Hellenistic one.
Douglas Moo prefers the purpose interpretation, but acknowledges in a footnote that "This clause is
occasionally taken to indicate result (BDR 391[11]; Chrysostom; Stuart; Lenski; Black)."

I would translate Rom 5:20 as something like:  When the law was introduced, sin increased.
In 6:1 I might keep the ambiguous English "so that" which can indicate purpose or result: Should we
continue to sin so that grace can increase? (But I still interpret the hINA as result).

Gal 3:19 is different. Here the point is that the law was added in order to restrain outward sins,
but it can never change the inward sins of the heart. It was only intended to be in effect until the
better solution was introduced that can change the heart.

Iver Larsen

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Weiss" <papaweiss1 at yahoo.com>
To: "b-greek" <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2007 5:30 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] Causal hINA in Romans 5:20 and 6:1 - Caragounis


In THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, Chrys
Caragounis has an interesting discussion in Chapter 4 (Syntactical
Developments),  Section XI - Conjunctions (pp. 218-226) wherein he discusses
the use and meaning of hINA - and basically turns the standard interpretations
and translations of Romans 5:20 and Romans 6:1 on their heads.

>From what I could see, Daniel Wallace doesn't discuss this use/meaning of
hINA, nor does Perschbacher in his Syntax book, nor do Moo nor Schreiner nor
Mounce nor Kasemann (the only commentaries I have) in their commentaries on
Romans. They all opt for the usual interpretation of these verses - i.e., the Law
was given to cause sin to increase. St. John Chrysostom in his commentary on
these verses also seems to say the same thing as these others.

Caragounis interprets it to mean that the Law was given to curb sin, because sin
had increased. He contends that hINA here functions causally. As I said, the
usual translations of Romans 5:20 and 6:1 are that the law entered in so that sin
might increase (5:20), and Paul's question (6:1) - based on this idea that as law
comes in, sin increases - is translated to say, "should we sin so that grace might
increase" (since as sin increased, grace increased even more; cf. Romans
5:20b). But Caragounis argues that they should be translated, "the law entered
in, because sin had increased" (5:20), and "should we continue in sin, because
grace has increased?" (6:1).

Caragounis's translation comports better with Galatians 3:19, and he seems to
have some good evidence to support his argument.

Any comments?

Naturally, this has huge implications for theology - or at least some sermons
and commentaries. But I'm asking what people think of Caragounis's argument
and support for his case.




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