From: Eric Weiss (eweiss@acf.dhhs.gov)
Date: Sat Jul 20 1996 - 10:22:26 EDT
In Galatians 2:15, Paul writes:
hUMEIS FUSEI IOUDAIOI KAI OUK EX EQNWN hAMARTWLOI
Is Paul equating being a Gentile with being a sinner, or is he
differentiating between Gentiles who are sinners and Gentiles who are not
sinners? The structure of the phrase makes me think it's the former:
hUMEIS [ESMEN] FUSEI IOUDAIOI
KAI OUK
[hUMEIS ESMEN] EX EQNWN hAMARTWLOI
That is,
We Paul and Cephas
by nature i.e., by virtue of our birth/who we came from (could
EK FUSEWS, i.e, "from nature," function just as well
here, to emphasize the parallelism with EX EQNWN?)
[are]
Jews/Jewish depending on whether IOUDAIOI is functioning
substantivally or adjectivally--can it be either?
and
[we are]
not
from Gentiles i.e., by nature/where we came from
sinners/sinful depending on whether hAMARTWLOI is substantival or
adjectival
Thus, the contrast is not between being a Jew and being a Gentile (or being a
sinning Gentile) as such, but between being a righteous person by virtue of
one's being born to the covenant people and doing works of law and being a
sinner by virtue of not being part of the covenant people.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:45 EDT