From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 16 2001 - 07:01:58 EST
At 4:40 AM +0000 1/16/01, Mark Wilson wrote:
>1 Cor. 13:2
>
>EAN ECW PASAN THN PISTIN hWSTE ORH MEQISTANAI
>
>"if I have all faith..."
>
>To me, "all" just does not seem like a possible attribute
>of "faith." I note that this syntactical structure is
>similar (PAS + Art. + Noun) as the famous "the love of
>money is the root of all KINDS OF evils."
>
>How would you understand PASAN THN PISTIN in 1 Cor 13:2?
>
>"all categories of faith..."
>
>"all levels/degrees of faith..."
(1) PAS is one of those "demonstrative" adjectives that is ALWAYS used in
the predicative position with respect to article and noun.
(2) This is a rhetorically charged passage in which Paul is stretching
every would-be "virtue" to the farthest conceivable limit and showing it as
falling short of significance apart from AGAPH; therefore I can't imagine
taking this as meaning anything other than "boundless" faith; 'faith that
can move mountains' will do pretty well in my book to metaphorize
"boundless faith."
The paraphrase of 1 Cor 13 that I did for my daughter's wedding does this
with 1 Cor 13:2
"2. Whatever powers I may have-
to proclaim God's will on the issues of the day,
to probe secrets of the cosmos and wisdom of sages,
to overcome any obstacle with boundless trust in God,
they are utterly worthless
unless they serve loving-kindness."
--Carl W. Conrad Department of Classics/Washington University One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018 Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649 cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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