From: Eric Weiss (eweiss@acf.dhhs.gov)
Date: Tue Jul 16 1996 - 11:01:57 EDT
I'D APPRECIATE ANY FEEDBACK ON THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS/THOUGHTS.
In his THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE GENTILES: PAUL'S LETTERS TO THE GALATIANS
AND ROMANS (Hendrickson, 1994), Hendrikus Boers analyzes the structure of
Romans based on Paul's rhetorical questions in chapters 3-11 and concludes
that the theme of the letter is not, as is commonly held, in 1:17 (i.e.,
justification by faith), but in 1:16 (i.e., the gospel is the power of God
to all who believe, to the Jews first, and to the Hellenes). (pp. 77ff)
Could this conclusion perhaps open the way to the proper understanding of
Paul's EK PISTEWS EIS PISTIN in 1:17, a phrase which has perplexed me for a
long time (and apparently many translators and commentators as well)? I
haven't finished it, but it doesn't appear that Boers elaborates on EK
PISTEWS EIS PISTIN anywhere in his book.
Boers states:
It is important to note that the theme is not simply salvation to
the Jews as well as gentiles, but to the Jews FIRST, and to the
gentiles. Paul's formulation in 1:16, "to the Jews first, and to
the Hellenes," repeated in 2:9 and 10, may be intentionally
precise: The Jews are the first to receive salvation, and
gentile salvation is grounded in that of the Jews. (pp. 81-82)
If one of Paul's themes is that the faith that came from (EK/EX) the Jews
(as the seed of Abraham? cf. 4:16 and John 4:22 "hH SWTHRIA EK TWN IOUDAIWN
ESTIN") resulted in (EIS) salvation for the gentiles--or, conversely, that
out of Abraham's faith which he had while uncircumcised (4:10) (i.e., while
a gentile) salvation came to the Jews--then that may explain the
back-to-back prepositional phrases in 1:17.
In 3:30 Paul says that God will justify the circumcised (Jews) EK PISTEWS
and the uncircumcised (gentiles) DIA THS PISTEWS. This is EK/DIA, not
EK/EIS, and Boers points out on p. 108 that lexically the two prepositions
at 3:30 can have the same meaning, but maybe Paul used the two different
prepositions here both for stylistic reasons and to maintain his
distinction of Jews and gentiles begun with his IOUDAIWi TE PRWTON KAI
hELLHNI in 1:16 and repeated at 2:9 and 10.
If so, then perhaps Paul used the two different prepositions in 1:17
because he was also referring to the two different peoples, i.e., Jews and
gentiles--talking about the faith which comes out of (EK) the Jews and
results in (EIS) [the same] faith coming to the gentiles--since both Jews
and gentiles are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. In 1:16 Paul's EIS
SWTHRIAN PANTI TWi PISTEUONTI means "resulting in salvation to all who
believe." Since the EK PISTEWS in 1:17a derives from the EK PISTEWS in
1:17b in Paul's quote from Habbakuk 2:4, perhaps the EIS PISTIN in 1:17a is
based on the EIS [SWTHRIAN PANTI TWi] PISTEUONTI in 1:16.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:46 EDT