[B-Greek] DIA phrase with an infinitive

Ian W. Scott iscott at tyndale.ca
Fri Jun 19 10:36:02 EDT 2009


Hi Iver,

This is actually just tightening up a footnote for a paper that's 
forthcoming in JSJ on the idea of "inspiration" in Aristeas. I'm arguing 
that God's involvement in the law's composition is, in Aristeas, very 
indirect. There is no dictation, even of the decalogue. Rather God has 
gifted Moses with a prodigious intellect and at that point God's 
involvement ended. The actual contents of Torah are, for the author of 
Aristeas, a human achievement. But since all reason is a reflection of 
the divine NOUS, there is still a sense in which God is it's author. All 
of this is quite explicit in Eleazar's speech on the law, among other 
places. God is never named as NOMOQETHS in the book, but Moses is in 
many places. The Sinai event is conspicuously absent from the whole 
discussion. The reason Demetrius' statement in 313 is so important is 
that the clause in question is usually taken as a straightforward 
statement that God is the law's author. I'm arguing that the 
construction is actually deliberately vague, fitting the kind of 
indirect inspiration that is explicitly described elsewhere in the book. 
In short, Aristeas goes further than does Philo in the direction of a 
Hellenistic rationalization of Torah. If you're interested you're 
welcome to read a pre-pub copy.

Cheers,

Ian

> 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


-- 

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/>

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/The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha/ (Atlanta: SBL, 2006-). Online: 
http://www.purl.org/net/ocp




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