[B-Greek] Habbakuk 2:4b - objective genitive?
Blue Meeksbay
bluemeeksbay at yahoo.com
Fri Dec 18 13:33:12 EST 2009
>You wrote:
>My question - which arose from an attempt to translate/explicate this section of Romans 1
>and its relationship to Paul's teachings on PISTIS and DIKAIOSUNH
I do not believe you are trying to invent anything, but for what it is worth, I also do not believe MOU would be an objective genitive. I think, as was said before, Paul well knew the LXX reading, but that was not the point he was trying to make in Rom. 1:17. He was emphasizing “faith” in and of itself, especially because of his emphasis about faith hitherto.
His acknowledgment of the LXX reading is hinted at in the phrase right before his quote verse 17 – EK PISTEWS EIS PISTIN. The faith in Hab. 2:4 (in the LXX) would be referring to the faith of LORD (Jesus) (also cf. Rom. 3:22 EK PISTEWS IHSOU with EK PISTEWS ABRAAM in Rom 4:16).
As you well know, the Jews believed they would be saved by the merits (which included faith) of Abraham. This was a common understanding of Jewish thought in those days. They believed Abraham’s faith secured the salvation for most of his children. Paul is picking up that thought and declaring it is not the merits or faith of Abraham that secures, but the merits or faith of Jesus.
Because of this, the faith of Jesus becomes the source, or perhaps, the sustaining power of our faith (Heb. 12:2), thus the phrase EK PISTEWS EIS PISTIN. This concept is also picked up in Rom. 3:22 DIAKAISUNH DE QEOU DIA PISTEWS IHSOU XRISTOU EIS PANTAS KAI EPI PANTAS TOUS PISTEUONTAS OU GAR ESTIN DIASTOLH.
Therefore, it seems, in Rom. 1:17, Paul is emphasizing the importance of having “faith” in and of itself, without indicating whether it is referring to the faith of Jesus, the faith of the Roman saints, or the faith of his own (vs. 12), thus he left off the MOU of the LXX, but the fact that he was not unaware of it is shown by his prefacing the phrase with EK PISTEWS EIS PISTIN.
Anyway, just a thought, I may be wrong.
Sincerely,
B.Harris
________________________________
From: Eric S. Weiss <papaweiss1 at yahoo.com>
To: b-greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Fri, December 18, 2009 7:52:53 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Habbakuk 2:4b - objective genitive?
George:
I know the textual problem vis-a-vis the Hebrew that the LXX displays (i.e., "his" versus
"my").
But my question is not whether or not the LXX got the Hebrew right, but how the LXX of
Habakkuk 2:4b can be understood or read or used by the reader or by an expositor like
Paul.
My question - which arose from an attempt to translate/explicate this section of Romans 1
and its relationship to Paul's teachings on PISTIS and DIKAIOSUNH - is whether or not
MOU in the LXX of Hab 2:4b can be understood or translated as an objective genitive. If so,
I think this potentially nuances Paul's use of the phrase in Romans 1:17 and elsewhere,
and tangentially could be a factor in the PISTIS CRISTOU discussion, IMO.
- - -
Eric S. Weiss
---
B-Greek home page: http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek
B-Greek mailing list
B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list