From: Jeffrey Gibson (jgibson@acfsysv.roosevelt.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 09 1997 - 08:38:09 EST
On Mon, 8 Dec 1997, Wes Williams wrote:
> I just completed the most highly nuanced discussion over the keeping of the
> law I think I will ever have. Our discussion finally centered on Romans
> 7:6. Someone produced the following paragraph in defense of the translation
> of Romans 7:6 as "We have been released from this aspect of the Torah." I
> would appreciate your comments as to the propriety/ plausibility of
> inserting the words "this aspect of" between APW and TOU NOMOU.
>
>
> 6 Because Yeshua paid the penalty for our disobedience to the Torah, death,
> *we have been released* (KATARGEW, as in v.2) *from this aspect of the
> Torah,* the aspect of it which causes unbelievers to produce "fruit for
> death" (v. 5). The phrase, "this aspect of," is not in the Greek text; I
> have added it because believers have _not_ been released from _every_
> aspect of the Torah, as explained below and in v.4N. In v.3 the phrase,
> "that part of," is likewise not in the Greek text, yet it is obviously what
> the text means, since the death of a woman's husband does not free her from
> obedience to other aspects of the Torah. The present verse is analogous in
> this regard.
>
Wes,
If for no other reason, this reading is suspect in my eyes because it
reads an Anselmian theology of atonement into Paul's declarations about
Jesus death "for us", a theology which makes God the Father the "bad guy"
who needs a death to satisfy his offended honour. But in Paul's belief,
however Jesus life/death effects SWTHRIA, the atonement does not involve
human beings propitiating an angry God. Rather it is from start to finish
God's move to reconcile human beings to himself. But I suspect
that pursuing this aspect of the background to Paul's language in Rom. 7 is
beyond the scope of B-Greek. Accordingly, any comments on my comments
should best be sent off-list.
Yours,
Jeffrey Gibson
jgibson@acfsysv.roosevelt.edu
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