[b-greek] Re:(Acts 13: 48) Did I miss something?

From: Mark Wilson (emory2oo2@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Sep 14 2000 - 11:27:18 EDT


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Carl wrote:

>The text: ... EPISTEUSAN hOSOI HSAN TETAGMENOI EIS ZWHN AIWNION.
>
>I really don't think anything more is meant by this phrase than we mean by
>saying "All those who were prepared for the test passed it with flying
>colors." Nothing is said about who prepared the persons in question,
>whether they had hit the midnight oil for several nights in a row or
>someone had given them half a dozen help sessions to make sure that they
>understood all the problems on which they would be examined. What the
>phrasing says is nothing more than "those who were ready for the test
>passed it" and of course it's also implied that "those who weren't ready
>didn't pass it."


In case list members missed the implications of this, may I simply say that
these comments by Carl are not far from a stroke of genius.

And I think the implications of this observation carry over to other often
heated debates over the Middle versus Passive, for example, Romans 9:22:

SKEUH ORGHS KATHRTISMENA EIS APWLEIAN


I think many have wrongly concluded that the "theological" implications are
"automatically determined" ONCE THE MIDDLE OR PASSIVE IS DETERMINED.

Using this passage in Romans, if we take KATHRTISMENA as Passive, "were
fitted for destruction," one is still no closer in determining "who" or
"what" fitted them. And how God's predesigning hand fashions these events
does not come down to a Middle/Passive debate.

So that, if one takes KATHRTISMENA as Middle, "fit themselves," one is still
again no closer in resolving the heated theological debate of God's
predestination.

I am not speaking for Carl here by any means, I am simply using his
brilliant comment in Acts as a spring board.

A grammatical constuction will not determine a theological position, and I
think all too often those who have a Greek background give the impression
that since a construct is being used in a particular way, that that by
default settles the larger theological issue.

IMHO

Thank you,

Mark Wilson


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