[B-Greek] 2Cor 3:15-16 hHNIKA ... AN

Donald Cobb docobb at orange.fr
Thu Feb 4 00:37:46 EST 2010


Elizabeth,

You raise a good point with v. 15. The connotation there is simply temporal.

I think the Exodus passage really is the key, given the total absence of 
hHNIKA elsewhere in Paul and the NT. Paul is quoting/re-rwiting Exodus 
to talk about what happens to New Covenant believers. But given that 1) 
he doesn't use the term elsewhere, and 2) the fact that he is fairly 
clearly quoting, I think it would be unwise to assume that he's giving 
any other meaning to hHNIKA AN  than what it has in Ex 34.

In the Exodus passage, the use of hHNIKA D' AN has nothing causal or 
conditional about it. It merely states when: "every time that". I don't 
think we can safely say that Paul has any other meaning in mind.

Donald Cobb
Aix-en-Provence, France


Elizabeth Kline a écrit :
>
> It seems to me that 2Cor. 3:15 undermines Brian's reading:
>
> On Feb 3, 2010, at 10:51 AM, Brian Abasciano wrote:
>
>   
>> I actually think it is pretty certain that a causal/conditional relationship 
>> is implied. 
>>     
>
>
> There doesn't seem to be any conditional or causal element in 2Cor. 3:15
>
>  ALL᾿ hEWS SHMERON hHNIKA AN ANAGINWSKHTAI MWUSHS, KALUMMA EPI THN KARDIAN AUTWN KEITAI·
>
> Paul isn't saying that the KALUMMA EPI THN KARDIAN AUTWN KEITAI is somehow contingent on ANAGINWSKHTAI MWUSHS, as if the veil was lifted when they stopped reading. In English, a straight reading of  v16 appears to make  PERIAIREITAI TO KALUMMA contingent of EPISTREYHi PROS KURION. However, because "we do this in English" it is a good idea to be skeptical about reading it that way in Greek. It is far too easy to read our native language habits in to the text.     
>
> Re: the Exodus passage, not sure what to do with that. It explains the use of  hHNIKA AN but I not certain how it helps to resolve the issue of conditional and/or causal semantic features in  2Cor. 3:15-16.
>
>
> Elizabeth Kline
>  
>
>
>
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