[B-Greek] DIA phrase with an infinitive
Ian W. Scott
iscott at tyndale.ca
Thu Jun 18 10:03:19 EDT 2009
I'm working on a passage in the Letter of Aristeas and am trying to
clarify the sense of a prepositional phrase. The clause is an infinitive
clause: [(H NOMOQESIA] DIA QEOU GEGONENAI. Ordinarily I wouldn't take
QEOU here as the agent directly responsible for the legislation's
appearance, since GEGONENAI is a middle/deponent and not a true passive.
I would assume that DIA QEOU is indicating a less specific relationship
between God's action and the legislation. "The legislation appeared
because of God" or something like that (in context it doesn't make sense
for QEOU to be the intermediate agent). What I'm wondering, though, is
whether I'm missing an idiom here. What matters to me, exegetically, is
whether this is a straightforward statement that God directly authored
the legislation. I don't think it is. I think it's more vague than
that. But I'm looking for some second opinions. Any thoughts?
Ian
--
Ian W. Scott
Assistant Professor of New Testament
Tyndale Seminary
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
iscott at tyndale.ca <mailto:iscott at tyndale.ca>
http://www.ian-w-scott.com
===================================================
/Paul's Way of Knowing: Story, Experience and the Spirit /(WUNT II.206;
Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008).
<http://www.tyndale.ca/%7Eiscott/blog/essays-and-articles/>
===================================================
/The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha/ (Atlanta: SBL, 2006-). Online:
http://www.purl.org/net/ocp
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list