From: GregStffrd@aol.com
Date: Mon Nov 09 1998 - 16:45:26 EST
In a message dated 11/9/98 12:44:09 PM Pacific Standard Time,
jonathan@texcel.no writes:
<< A literal, non-metaphorical use of PRWTOTOKOS would imply that Jesus was
physically born as the first male child born in a physical family, in which
case he would belong to the group of children in the family. >>
This is not necessary. While it is true, in human terms, that the PRWTOTOKOS
would have a father and mother, in a household of other children, it is not
necessary to transfer this same scenario to the spirit realm. The Bible uses
human terms so that we can have some sense of understanding the relationships
that exist in the spirit realm, in this case between God and his Son. To think
that the use of PRWTOTOKOS in any literal sense would have to transfer the
human familial setting to the heavenly realm is quite a stretch, in my view.
Bound up in the term are thoughts of temporal priority, preeminence, certain
family rights and responsibilities, etc. The human surroundings that are part
of a firstborn's life are not bound up in the term. They are merely the
circumstances surrounding the firstborn when applied to a human. Those who
knew of Christ as the Firstborn of God certainly would have known better than
to transfer such things as a human family etc. along with the aforementioned
notions of temporal priority and preeminence.
Again, the Bible uses human language so that we HUMANS can understand what it
is that God wants us to know about His relationship with other spirit beings,
and us humans.
Greg Stafford
--- B-Greek home page: http://sunsite.unc.edu/bgreek You are currently subscribed to b-greek as: [cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-b-greek-329W@franklin.oit.unc.edu To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-b-greek@franklin.oit.unc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:40:07 EDT