Dear Edgar, and colleagues:
You wrote:
>>>>The discussion of hHMARTON in Rom 3:23 is interesting; but even more
fascinating is the apparently strange construction in which Paul puts what
one things should be his major idea in the sentence into a partiiple in
3:24, DIKAIOUMENOI, without any particle or conjunction to indicate its
logical adversative sense to the concept of sinning.
That is one of the reasons that many (I include myself here) hold that Paul
is citing--and modifying--a statement of faith formed earlier by a
Jewish-Christian group. [There are other strange linguistic features invv.
24-26 that support this suggestion.]<<<<<
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How wonderful to know that we are "many" who regard this as a citation by
Paul (lightly interpolated with his favorite terms) from earlier Jewish-
Christians! I was convinced long ago of this by Bultmann's dicussion of it
in his ThNT, Vol. I (section 7, sub 3 -- p. 49 in the German original,
p. 46 in the Eng. trans. -- the German is much better, for he cites the
passage in Greek, with Paul's additions in parentheses).
Edward Hobbs