Personally, I would say any and/or all of the above, and I find this
incredibly rich section of Romans 7 the key to my own understanding of
Genesis 3 -- and of my own status before God -- as Augustine might put it,
SIMUL JUSTUS ET PECCATOR. (Was this originally Augustine?)
>Unfortunately, my skills and resources for understanding the fine
>points of language are less than some of you all. Do any of you have
>
>linguistic insights that might make what Paul is saying clearer?
>.
>The use of ANEZHSEN here is particular problem for me. According to
>the limited sources I have at hand, its' meaning is "revived" or
>"made alive again". Yet considering what Pauls says here in light of
>Romans 5 and other scriptures strongly suggests that he is refering
>(at least in part) to his identification with Adam in Eden. But how
>could original sin be said to be a revival?
I don't know that theology is avoidable here, but it is intimately bound up
with understanding the Greek text ANEZHSEN here. The ANA- prefix may mean
"again" or it may simply mean "up," "upwards" (just as in the
much-discussed ANWQEN of John 3:3 (EAN MH TIS GENNHQHi ANWQEN, OU DUNATAI
IDEIN THN BASILEIAN TOU QEOU) where my Baptist friends and others will
insist that this means "born again," others understand it as "born from
above" and still others see in it a deliberate _double entendre_.
Then, is ANEZHSEN referring to a single occasion in the writer's personal
existence? Ostensibly, because it appears in a first-person narrative. But
is the first-person narrative a literary device? Some would disagree, but I
personally think that even if it is a personal testimonial it is also a
literary device describing the fate of EVERYMAN (MAN being used there in a
generic sense). Or is ANEZHSEN here gnomic, in the sense that when any
person goes through this process of crushing self-discovery, sin springs to
life at once? Springs to life anew, just as it has in every human being
before one's own experience? I'm perfectly willing to understand this as
original sin being a latent factor that rises to overt condition in the
course of this shocking self-discovery.
So, if Paul is right in what he says here, I think he is profoundly right
about us all.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(704) 675-4243
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/