I don't really quite think that is what Paul means here. One thing I'd note
is that this aorist is within a subordinate hWS clause which is itself
dependent upon the infinitives with LEGW as imperatival: LEGW ... MH
hUPERFRONEIN ALLA FRONEIN EIS TO SWFRONEIN, (hEKASTWi hWS KTL.). I think
that the sense Paul is expressing here is that his addressees should
carefully assess the measure of their own faith as it currently stands,
recognize honestly the extent to which that faith is well-developed and the
extent to which it hasn't yet matured, and to behave in accordance with
that honest assessment of their present degree of progress on what some
like to call a "journey of faith." I don't think there is any implication
that the allotment of faith is limited in the case of each individual; I
think rather that Paul is here expressing the same notion that he expresses
elsewhere, that even one's self-initiated commitment of faith is a gift of
God, however paradoxical that may seem.
If there is another Pauline text that illumintes this well, I think it may
be Phil 3:12-16, where we have that marvelous (and strangely
non-competitive) racing image that expresses Paul's own "journey of faith"
and then suggests that this attitude (OUC hOTI HDH ELABON H HDH TETELEIWMAI
...) is an appropriate one for the Philippians to assume also (15-16):
hOSOI OU TELEIOI, TOUTO FRONEITE: KAI EI TI hETERON FRONEITE, KAI TOUTO hO
QEOS hUMIN APOKALUYEI. PLHN EIS hO EFQASAMEN, TWi AUTWi STOICEIN. I think
this last verse is the most important clue to the sense of Rom 12:3. I take
it to mean: "Let's keep going right onward at the level of faith that we
have thus far attained."
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics/Washington University
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cconrad@yancey.main.nc.us
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/