[B-Greek] DIA phrase with an infinitive
Iver Larsen
iver_larsen at sil.org
Fri Jun 19 00:50:32 EDT 2009
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian W. Scott" <iscott at tyndale.ca>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: 18. juni 2009 17:03
Subject: [B-Greek] DIA phrase with an infinitive
> 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?
It is not clear to me what you mean by "directly authored" or "directly
responsible".
Have you looked at the various occurrences of NOMOQETHS in this letter and other
relevant literature? I don't see a problem with both God (cf. Jas 4.12) and
Moses being described as the lawgiver, each with their own contribution.
However, I do see a problem if you want to exclude either God or Moses from the
giving/producing of the Mosaic law.
Iver Larsen
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