[B-Greek] Rom 8:10 TO DE PNEUMA ZWH
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Oct 21 15:22:50 EDT 2008
On Oct 21, 2008, at 12:56 PM, Tom Moore wrote:
>> ΠΡΟΣ ΡΩΜΑΙΟΥΣ 8:10 Greek NT: Greek Orthodox Church
>> εἰ δὲ Χριστὸς ἐν ὑμῖν, τὸ μὲν
>> σῶμα νεκρὸν δι’ ἁμαρτίαν, τὸ δὲ
>> πνεῦμα ζωὴ διὰ δικαιοσύνην.
>> This is the way all texts have it. What one may gain if alters it
>> to «πνεῦμα ζῶν διὰ δικαιοσύνην»?
>
> As SNL's Tim Calhoun would say, "in conclusion and in summary":
>
> Some translations render TO PNEUMA ZWH in this verse as "the spirit
> is life"; some infer "the spirit is alive." Is the latter valid?*
> What is gained from PNEUMA ZWN DIA DIKAIOSUNHN is to see how Paul
> would have said "the spirit is alive," if that is what he had meant,
> and seeing this, I think we can say that that is not what he meant.
> Rather, he meant what he said: the spirit is life; not alive.
>
> *The original question was whether ZWH (life) could in fact be the
> Homeric adjective ZWOS (alive) [it cannot because of gender
> disagreement w/PNEUMA], and failing that, whether the noun ZWH can
> be used to mean "alive" [the evidence suggests that the participle
> of ZAW (to live) would be used instead].
I have played this game myself -- too many times, I fear --, and I
have to say I regret doing it: "If the writer had intended to say
XXXX... , he would have written xxxx... " I am inclined to agree with
the proposition, "What the author wrote is what he intended to write"
-- BUT I am ever more skeptical of the hypothetical sort of
proposition about what the author MIGHT have written. We have to deal
with the text that is set before us.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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