Parting company is such sweet sorrow

To: David John Marotta <H620@dmt03>, New Testament Greek Mailing List <NT-Greek@Virginia.EDU>
Subject: Parting company is such sweet sorrow
From: David John Marotta <djm5g%Virginia.EDU@dmt03.mcc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 09 Oct 92 13:56:31 EST

Paul J. Bodin writes:

>This is precisely the point at which I believe we part company.
>
>Paul might be trying very hard to demonstrate his point
>from Hebrew scriptures and still not conform to our canons of
>legitimate objective argumentation and exegesis.  Indeed it would be
>unlikely that he would do so, for these canons were very different
>in his world than they are in ours.

This has always been a fundamental difference between the way I approach
a passage and many (most) others.  Let me lay out my assumption for
arguementation, because I think it will help me understand the alternatives
better to find out what the alternate view thinks of my understanding.
I have been suspecting that if the discussion continued long enough it
would head in this direction, and that is one reason I thought it was worth
pursuing to the presuppositions underlying each approach:

Is there objective truth? (using correspondance theory of truth).  Did such
an idea exist in classical Greek thought?  Old Testament prophets?  Paul's
writings?

Is Arisotlean logic innate?  (not in its formal propositional encoding, but
the ideas themselves)  Is God the author of reason?  Is he the rational
purpose that ordered the world and build reason as a methodology of knowing
into all people? (John 1)  Is reason, and a rational world, a Biblical
assumption?

Is authorial intent determinative of the meaning of a communication.  (Not
the formal theory, again, but when one Chinese peasant listens to another
Chinese peasant are they trying to understand what the first peasant meant).

Perhaps my view is too simplistic, and perhaps you disagree with either
universal truths, authorial intent, or innate reason, but if these are
starting places, then when Paul tries to demonstrate something, he will be
using the same type of brain as you and I do, with the same innate reason,
talking about what is objectively true (not just true to him) based upon what
God (as the author) said was true.

At which point do we part company.  Hopefully not all three!

David John Marotta, Medical Center Computing, Stacey Hall
Univ of Virginia (804) 982-3718 wrk INTERNET: djm5g@virginia.edu
Box 512 Med Cntr (804) 924-5261 msg   BITNET: djm5g@virginia
C'ville VA 22908 (804) 296-7209 fax   IBM US: usuvarg8