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Rom 3:25 - dia ths pistews
It seems to me that dia ths pistews must either go with proeqeto (the main
verb) or as a modifier of hilasterion. In the former case, we would have "whom
God appointed through faith(fulness?) as a propitiation by his blood..." and in
the latter, "whom God appointed as a propitiation by his blood, which
propitiation is a "through faith" propitiation..." The difficulty with the
former is, in what sense is God's appointment qualified by faith; the
difficulty with the latter is, without a preceding article it seems unlikely
that the prepositional phrase would be adjectival to hilasterion.
In Gal 3:28 you have something similar, where "you are sons of God through
faith, in Christ Jesus, and again comparison with v. 28 shows that the "in
Christ" modifies the verb este, not faith, and dia ths pistews indicates the
mode of being sons. Here in Romans it could either be the mode of Jesus being
appointed, or the nature of the propitiation.
This by the way is a good argument for R. Hays view that pistis Ihsou Xristou
in 3:22 is a subjective genitive, thus understanding "faith" in Rom 3 and
Gal 3 to be the faithfulness of Christ, rather than faith in Christ. Rom 3:25
might be indicating that God appointed Christ through Christ's faithfulness to
be a propitiation.
Hmmm. Something to think about.
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** Dan G. McCartney | I'net: DMCCARTNEY@HSLC.ORG **
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