[B-Greek] ginosko in Romans 7:15

Carl Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Wed May 4 11:09:56 EDT 2011


On May 4, 2011, at 10:10 AM, Bill Shea wrote:

> ho gar katergszomai ou ginosko
> 
> I am currently doing a study in Romans. In 7:15 Paul says, "I do not understand what I do" (NIV). In his commentary on Romans http://www.ccel.org/ccel/newell/romans.viii.html, William R. Newell argues that ginosko has broad meaning and that in this context the word means "approve".
> 
> I have searched all my resources and have been unable to find "approve" as an acceptable translation for "ginosko". Am I missing something here?

Text: Rom. 7:15 ὃ γὰρ κατεργάζομαι οὐ γινώσκω· οὐ γὰρ ὃ θέλω τοῦτο πράσσω, ἀλλ᾿ ὃ μισῶ τοῦτο ποιῶ. 
[hO GAR KATERGAZOMAI OU GINWSKW; OU GAR hO QELW TOUTO PRASSW, ALL' hO MISW TOUTO POIW[

I don't think "approve" belongs here at all. I think rather that the sense is "acknowledge (as my own."
In this instance I think it may be worth reproducing the highly rhetorical structure of the original in an English version:

"What I end up doing after all, I don't recognize/acknowledge (as my own doing); what I DON'T want (to do), in fact, THAT's what I enact; rather, what I DETEST, THAT's what I achieve."

I do think that this sequence in Rom 7:14-29 is one of the most powerful rhetorical achievements from Paul's stylus (or from that of his amanuensis). Perhaps Steve Runge would like to comment on the structure of these clauses: the threefold relative clause followed by demonstrative and a different verb. The alternation of verbs for "do" is interesting too:
κατεργάζομαι KATERGAZOMAI, perhaps "bring about", πράσσω PRASSW "enact," ποιῶ POIW, perhaps "achieve."


Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)





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