> And finally, I hope that we can keep the discussion focused on illuminating
> portions of Greek text rather than become increasingly embroiled in a
> discussion of hermeneutics. I hope that what I've just written is more a
> matter of common sense than of hermeneutical theory.
Whatever the slippery term "common sense" denotes, I think Carl is
talking of hermeneutics, and has posed a very keen solution to the
difficulty. There is a superficial contradiction, but we dare not
leave it at that, lest we fail to grasp the author's intention. A
real contradiction can have no positive sense at all, and the fact
that we are able to discern a positive intention, based on textual
clues, indicates that the contradiction is not genuine, but merely
apparent. This paradox is not so terribly difficult to solve, but
it leads to the more difficult question of the nature of ethics.
For anyone who is interested in a discussion of ethics as it
concerns the relation of the one (new) commandment to love and the
many (old) commandments of the moral law, I don't think there is a
better resource than John Murray's _Principles of Conduct : Aspects
of Biblical Ethics_.
TTFN,
Jim