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Re: ADIALEIPTWS

Kevin Mullins wrote:

>In 1Thess. 1:3 3  we have ADIALEIPTWS MNHMONEUONTES  translated "
>Remembering without ceasing" (KJV).  Could it possibly have a qualitative
>meaning as well as or rather than being related to time?  That is, would I
>be stretching this a great deal to say,  "Remembering and leaving nothing
>out.." or "Remembering everything of your work of faith..."?

Louw and Nida suggests that it means quite literally without stopping. BAGD
pretty much agrees, but lists one instance where it seems to mean "without
fail".

>An aside while I'm on this verse;  A.T. Robertson has this related to
>...TOU KURIOU HMWN IHSOU XRISTOU as an objective genitive.  Is there a way
>(other than one's best educated guess) to determine when the genitive is
>used objectively or subjectively?

As Robertson says in his Big Yellow Tome, "The subjective genitive...can be
distinguished from the objective use only by the context. Sometimes the
matter is not clear....In itself the genitive is neither subjective nor
objective, but lends itself readily to either point of view."

This is often equally true of the English "of", which can frequently be used
to translate such genitives without resolving the ambiguity prematurely, e.g.

Ro 1:17    DIKAIOSUNH QEOU "the righteusness of God"
Mt 12:31   hH DE TOU PNEUMATOS BLASFHMIA "the blasphemy of the holy Spirit"

Our beliefs also play a role in our interpretation. For instance, Matthew
12:31 is ambiguous: "any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the
blasphemy of the holy Spirit shall not be forgiven" if we were only looking
at the grammar, it could very well mean "any sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven men, but the Spirit shall not be forgiven for his blasphemy". Of
course, Jesus could never have said such a thing, so this interpretation
would be ridiculous, even though the grammar allows it.


Jonathan

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