[B-Greek] Rom 8:4, "That which is impossible to the law"
Donald COBB
docobb at orange.fr
Thu Aug 27 03:04:00 EDT 2009
Thank you Iver and Elizabeth for your remarks.
Elizabeth, should I assume from your lack of references that a search of TO GAR ADUNATON in TLG didn't turn up anything substantial? I agree that that research would be germane to Paul's expression here (unfortunately, I don't have access to TLG).
> Another approach would take a look at Paul's syntactical habits with
> special reference to clause initial articular neuter adjectives
> (verbal). This is the approach taken by most of the older commentaries
> that pay any attention to the greek text.
BDF have a paragraph on substantivized adjectives, with references. According to BDF, Paul's use is somewhat unique in the NT (with Hebrews) but paralleled in other Koine writings. I looked over the the passages indicated there; Rom 8:3 seems to be without similar construction in Paul. I'm putting BDF's comments at the end of my message.
Iver, I'm also putting the full passages of the Epistle to Diognetes referred to in BDAG.
> I suggest that we read the constituent TO ... ADUNATON
> TOU NOMOU as a contextualzier, it ties thematic material from the
> preceding discourse to what Paul is about say.
> The problem with this analysis is that Paul seems to wander in his
> thoughts. At *first glance* the immediately following context doesn't
> seem to focus on TO ... ADUNATON TOU NOMOU. The very next clause EN
> hWi HSQENEI DIA THS SARKOS provides the key word SARX for his
> following thoughts in 3c-4. If we read hWi as coreferential with
> TO ... ADUNATON (Sandy & Headlam) and if we read HSQENEI DIA THS
> SARKOS as a predication about TO ... ADUNATON, then I guess the thread
> of thought is maintained from 3a-4. However, the thread is somewhat
> hard to follow due to the switch from TOU NOMOU to SARX as a key word.
> At *first glance* there seems to be relevance break down between
> TO ... ADUNATON TOU NOMOU and HSQENEI DIA THS SARKOS. What does SARX
> have to do with NOMOS? Paul answers the question, but the logic is
> somewhat torturous.
In terms of the contextual analysis, I take TO ADUNATON TOU NOMOU as a reference to the discussion Paul has just developed in Rm 7:7-25, showing that because of inherent human "fleshliness" (cf. 7:14,18,25), the law is rendered incapable of bringing about what it demands and is actually hijacked by sin to stimulate the contrary.
Is Paul saying that God condemned sin in the flesh (i.e., in Christ) so that, through "the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ" (v. 1), what the law demanded (TO DIKAIWMW TOU NOMOU, v. 4) becomes an actuality in believers' lives? That's the interpretation that seems most satisfying in terms of v. 4.
Paul then develops the opposition that he touched on between flesh and Sprit (v. 5-12)
Here is what BDF have to say:
"2) Peculiar to Paul (Heb) is the use of a neuter sing. adjective like an abstract, mostly with a dependent gen.: R 2: 4 to. crhsto.n tou/ qeou/ eivj meta,noia,n se a;gei TO XRHSTON TOU QEOU EIS METQNOIAN SE AGEI (goodness in a concrete instance; crhsto,thj XRHSTOTHS is used in the same vs. in a different sense), 2 C 8: 8 to. th/j u`mete,raj avga,phj gnh,sion TO THS UMETERAS AGAPHS GNHSION (‘what is genuine with respect to your love’). This usage is often attested in earlier classical authors (Hdt., Thuc.), but is also ‘completely familiar in higher koinh, KOINH’ (Schmid IV 608). Mayser II 1, 1ff. (not with a gen.).
[...]
(2) 1 C 1: 25 to. mwro.n tou/ qeou/ sofw,teron tw/n avnqrw,pwn evsti,n TO MWRON TOU QEOU SOFWTERON TWN ANQRWPOWN ESTIN (cf. mwri,a MWRIA 21, 23) ‘the (ostensible) foolishness of God’. As Deissmann shows (NBS 86ff. [BS 259ff.]) [...]. 2 C 4: 17 to. parauti,ka evlafro.n th/j qli,yewj h`mw/n TO PARAUTIKA ELAFRON THS QLIYEWS HMWN (contrasted with ba,roj BAROS); Ph 3: 8 dia. to. u`pere,con th/j gnw,sewj Cri,stou/ DIA TO UPEREXON THS GNWSEWS XRISTOU (more concrete and graphic than u`peroch, UPEROXH); 4: 5 to. evpieike.j u`mw/n TO EPIEIKES; 1 C 7: 35 to. eu;schmon kai. euvpa,redron tw|/ kuri,w| TO EUSXHMON KAI EUPAREDRON (§202) avperispa,stwj APERISTASTWS; R 9: 22, H 6: 17, 7: 18. R 8: 3 to. avdu,naton tou/ no,mou TO ADUNATON TOU NOMOU ‘the one thing the law could not do’, not abstract.—1: 19 to. gnwsto.n tou/ qeou/ fanero,n evstin evn auvtoi/j TO GNWSTON TOU QEOU FANERON EST EN AUTOIS […] —Cf. e.g. to. biazo,menon th/j avrrwsti,aj TO BIAZOMENON THS ARRWSTIAS Jos., Ant. 15.246, to. euvmetacei,riston th/j qh,raj TO EUMETAXEIRISTON THS QHRAS Strabo 3, p. 168, to. pro.j th.n patri,da gnh,sion TO PROS THN PATRIDA GNHSION inscription of Sestos (c. 120 BC; Deissmann, NBS 78 [BS 250]); further exx. in Schmidt 364ff.; Winer §34, 2 [Winer-M.3 294f.]; Ljungvik 24f. Also s. 1 Clem 19.1, 47.5. For the LXX Johannessohn I 23."
Iver, here are the passages BDAG alludes to in the Epistle to Diognetes:
Epistle to Diognetus 9,1 (Lightfoot) :
ἵνα ἐν τῷ τότε χρόνῳ ἐλεγχθέντες ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων ἔργων ἀνάξιοι ζωῆς νῦν ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ χρηστότητος ἀξιωθῶμεν καὶ τὸ καθ᾽ ἑαυτοὺς φανερώσαντες ἀδύνατον εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ θεοῦ δυνατοὶ γενηθῶμεν
hINA EN TWi TOTE CRONWi ELEGCQENTES EK TWN IDIWN ERGWN ANAXIOI ZWHS NUN hUPO THS TOU QEOU CRHSTOTHTOS AXIWQWMEN KAI TO KAQ᾽ hEAUTOUS FANERWSANTES ADUNATON EISELQEIN EIS THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU THi DUNAMEI TOU QEOU DUNATOI GENHQWMEN
Translation (Roberts & Donaldson) :
“so that being convinced in that time of our unworthiness of attaining life through our own works, it should now, through the kindness of God, be vouchsafed to us; and having made it manifest that in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God, we might through the power of God be made able”
9,6:
ἐλέγξας οὖν ἐν μὲν τῷ πρόσθεν χρόνῳ τὸ ἀδύνατον τῆς ἡμέτερας φύσεως εἰς τὸ τυχεῖν ζωῆς νῦν δὲ τὸν σωτῆρα δείξας δυνατὸν σώζειν καὶ τὰ ἀδύνατα· ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων ἐβουλήθη πιστεύειν ἡμᾶς τῇ χρηστότητι αὐτοῦ αὐτὸν ἡγεῖσθαι τροφέα πατέρα διδάσκαλον...
ELEGXAS OUN EN MEN TWi PROSQEN CRONWi TO ADUNATON THS hHMETERAS FUSEWS EIS TO TUCEIN ZWHS NUN DE TON SWTHRA DEIXAS DUNATON SWZEIN KAI TA ADUNATA· EX AMFOTERWN EBOULHQH PISTEUEIN hHMAS THi CRHSTOTHTI AUTOU AUTON hHGEISQAI TROFEA PATERA DIDASKALON...
“Having therefore convinced us in the former time that our nature was unable to attain to life, and having now revealed the Savior who is able to save even those things which it was formerly impossible to save, by both these facts He desired to lead us to trust in His kindness, to esteem Him our Nourisher, Father, Teacher...”
Donald Cobb
Aix-en-Provence, France
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