[B-Greek] Philippians 1:28

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Mon Jul 20 11:52:40 EDT 2009


With "gifts" like that, who needs plagues?
 george
gfsomsel 


… search for truth, hear truth, 
learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth, 
defend the truth till death.


- Jan Hus
_________ 



----- Original Message ----
From: "yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net" <yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net>
To: greek B-Greek <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 6:22:48 AM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Philippians 1:28


Donald EGRAPSE,

> I would venture to say that καὶ τοῦτο ἀπὸ θεοῦ,  
> KAI TOUTO APO QEOU, refers
> globally to the hostility towards the readers, in whch it has been  
> "freely
> given" (i.e., by God) to suffer for Christ. The demonstrative, then,  
> does
> not refer back to a specific word (ENDEIXIS, SWTHRIA, etc.) but to the
> general situation Paul is evoking.

I agree with Donald and Iver, the TOUTO is a DEICTIC pronoun referring  
to the hostility of the opponents, but I would add that it also refers  
both the the opportunity afforded by that hostility but especially to  
the results of that hostility, the resistance and unified endurance of  
the beleivers to which Paul alludes. That resistance is encouraged by  
Paul's words, STHKETE ... MIAi YUCHi SUNAQLOUNTES THi PISTEI TOU  
EUAGGELIOU." Resistance on the part of those who were considered in  
some measure (however small) as non-patriotic or enemies of Rome would  
be interpretted as a 'demonstration' of their rapidly approaching  
demise APWLEIAS, they would suffer the consequence of their obstinate  
refusal to abandon the worship of a Judean Rabbi turned divine being.  
People loyal to Rome were under oath to persecute those they suspected  
of not being loyal to Rome. On the other hand, Paul interprets their  
resistance in the light of the gospel as a proof of their salvation,  
SWTERIAS. The TOUTO refers to the entire situation as the opportunity  
to turn opposition and supposed destruction into salvation. The whole  
statement is very likely ironic, because the unbelieving opponents  
would have interpreted the suffering of the believers as "APO QEOS"  
just as the on-lookers in the servant song of Isaiah 53 interpreted  
the suffering of the servant as of one "smitten by God."



Yancy Smith, PhD
yancywsmith at sbcglobal.net
Y.W.Smith at tcu.edu
yancy at wbtc.com
5636 Wedgworth Road
Fort Worth, TX 76133
817-361-7565


---
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