[B-Greek] Romans 8:3
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Fri Sep 4 07:58:38 EDT 2009
Well, the focus of Leonard's examinations has been, in effect, on
whether ADUNATON in Rom 8:3 should be understood as active in sense,
"incapable (to perform)" or as passive, "impossible/undoable." I would
agree that the active sense seems much more likely here. On the other
hand, doesn't it seem rather awkward to speak of the ASQENEIA and
ADUNATON of the NOMOS when the ASQENEIA and powerlessness are
attributed to the SARX? I guess, however, that this is right; it's
comparable to saying, "I couldn't do anything with him; he was a
raging lunatic."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
On Sep 4, 2009, at 1:26 AM, Leonard Jayawardena wrote:
>
> In the earlier post, I asked: "Am I right in thinking that the usual
> translation of Romans 8:3 goes with the sense "impossible" and the
> alternative translation (where TO ADUNATON is treated as an
> "accusative of general reference") goes with the sense
> "incapable" or "weak"?"
>
>
>
> To put it another way, Is it correct to say that a translation of
> the type "For what the law could not do in that ..., God did..." is
> required when the meaning "possible" is assigned to the word
> ADUNATOS and the alternative translation discussed under the recent
> thread on the subject verse ("For in regard to the inability/
> impotence of the law...) is required when the meaning "weak" or
> "incapable" is assigned to that word? I can't think of a translation
> of the type "For what the law could not do in that ..., God did ..."
> when the meaning of ADUNATOS is "weak" of "incapable."
>
>
>
> If I am correct, doesn't the meaning you assign to this word decide
> what form the translation should take? If I understood the
> discussion correctly, the question was raised as to how one decides
> between the two possibilities of translation. The meaning of the
> word ADUNATOS could be the deciding factor. In Galatians 3:21 Paul
> writes, EI GAR EDOQH NOMOS hO DUNAMENOS ZWOPOIHSAI, ONTWS EK NOMOU
> AN HN hH DIKAIOSUNH. Here the participle DUNAMENOS means "capable"
> or "having the strength," which sense
> corresponds in an opposite way to the sense TO ADUNATON bears in
> Romans 8:3 in the alternative translation. Since in both passages
> Paul deals with the impotence of the law by itself to bring about
> righteousness in man, this makes it likely that he used ADUNATOS in
> Romans 8:3 in a similar sense, i.e., "weak" or "incapable," rather
> than in the sense of "possible."
>
>
> I also mentioned that it might be instructive to compare the phrase
> TA ASQENHMATA TWN ADUNATWN in Romans 15:1 with TO GAR ADUNATON TOU
> NOMOU EN hW HSQENEI DIA THS SARKOS in Romans 8:3. We have ASQENHMATA
> and ADUNATWN in 15:1 and
> ADUNATON and HSQENEI in 8:3, which collocations again seem to point
> to both ADUNATON and ADUNATWN having the same basic sense.
>
> Leonard Jayawardena
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