Re: Galatians 5:4 THS XARITOS ECEPESATE: what kind of genitive?
Stephen Schaefer (schfrs@caribsurf.com)
Fri, 11 Oct 1996 08:44:07 -0400
>As for THS XARITOS ECEPESATE, I think we must understand THS XARITOS as
>ablatival and construed with the EC (I'd really prefer to spell this EKS
>or, but that's primarily because the Greek font I uses J for Xi) in the
>compound verb: "from grace have you been cast out"--I know that it's more
>normal to translate that: "you have fallen from grace," but PIPTW normally
>functions for the passive of BALLW, so that here EKPIPTW = passive
>of EKBALLW (which, curiously, has a regular political/juridical sense of
>"exile" and "divorce" in classical Attic). I won't even remotely touch the
>question of how we are to interepret this theologically!
Are we allowed to make theological comments? Forgive me just this once, please.
The passage is perhaps not talking about forensic justification. When he
says KATHRGHQHTE APO XRISTOU and THS XARITOS ECEPESATE, he simply means,
that, in their Christian lives, sanctification is impossible through
legalism. They need Christ and grace.
Stephen Schaefer
Grenada, WI