[B-Greek] Rom 1:18 and the conative
Stephen Baldwin
stbaldwi at hotmail.com
Tue Sep 22 21:20:18 EDT 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In Romans 1:18, Paul writes that God is revealing his wrath etc.
EPI PASAN ASEBEIAN KAI ADIKIAN ANTHRWPWN TWN THN ALHQEIAN EN ADIKIA KATEXONTWN
The object of my affections is the last word, which looks to me like a genitive plural present active participle [or GPM-P-A-Pt in my shorthand].
In reading Cranfield's commentary, he notes [p112] and footnotes [6 p112] that the present participle has conative force. He references BDF.319 [I now own this masterpiece [to the novice] of obtuseness ;-) ].
But I am unclear as to the force of KATEXONTWN. BDF says [if I read it correctly] that we have here the notion of an attempted-but-incomplete action, and that is how Cranfield interprets it thus. His footnote indicates that far from this being a pessimistic statement about the suppression of truth, it emphasises the futility of the sinful mind in its attempts to suppress the truth.
I think my question relates to how we identify this as being conative? [Cranfield himself laments that many commentators have missed this. Schreiner [Baker Exegetical] makes no mention of it to the best of my reading]...
And I have found precious little in my Greek library that discusses the connative. DeMoss in his dictionary mentions the inchoative, the tendential, and the voluntative. Any expositions in grammars to these terms would be appreciated!!
Best Regards
Steve Baldwin
stbaldwi at hotmail.com
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