[B-Greek] Romans 8:28

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sat Nov 3 10:42:20 EDT 2007


On Nov 3, 2007, at 8:55 AM, J Fincher wrote:

> Good morning,
>     What is the consensus for the punctuation in Romans 8:28.

Consensus? Where would you expect to find any consensus. I don't see  
any alternative punctuations indicated in the apparatus of UBS4,  
which has:

Rom. 8:28 Οἴδαμεν δὲ ὅτι τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν  
τὸν θεὸν πάντα συνεργεῖ εἰς  
ἀγαθόν, τοῖς κατὰ πρόθεσιν κλητοῖς  
οὖσιν.
OIDAMEN DE hOTI TOIS AGAPWSIN TON QEON PANTA SUNERGEI EIS AGAQON,  
TOIS KATA PROQESIN KLHTOIS OUSIN.

> Does Greek grammar call for the comma in the usual place of  
> separating "God" and "to"?  Also, is it possible for "to them who  
> are the called" to be a clause?  In other words, could it be  
> reflecting back to the former clause, and not the latter as the  
> punctuation below implies?

TOIS KATA PROQESIN KLHTOIS is not a clause; the KJV is probably wrong  
in converting KLHTOIS into "the called." The whole sequence of these  
four words is a substantive phrase that is probably best understood  
as appositive to TOIS AGAPWSIN TON QEON.

> Romans 8:28 KJV And we know that all things work together for good  
> to them that love God, to them who are the called according to  
> [his] purpose.

Your question seems to be predicated not upon the Greek text but upon  
the KJV translation. Our focus on B-Greek is not upon what  
translations offer but on what the Greek text says.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Ret)




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